lO''^^^vrU:A :■ 

iyi;!r£W^iA*t'j;!&r;;;.^fc.  ,s■■■ 


(;xt)j.+/i-j.-,.».'A,,;ji,uvM.,.-, . 


'-^^ 


A   WU.MAX    TEACHER  A  GLADIATOR    (. 

From    I'r.    \V.    M.    I-liiiilcrs   Petrie's    "Ilawara    I'orliaits"    (First    tn    Second    Century) 


XERO  AS  A  YOUTH 


A  LADV  OJ'   HIE  ElKST  OR  A  GENTLE.\L\X   OF  THE  FIRST  OR 

SECOND   CENTURY  SECOND   CENTURY 

From  Thomas  Graf's  Cnlleitinii   of  Roman-Egyptian   Mnniiny   I'oitralts    (First   to   Second  Century) 


THE 

NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL 

DISCOVERIES 

AND  THEIR  BEARING  UPON  THE  NEW 
TESTAMENT  AND  UPON  THE  LIFE  AND 
TIMES    OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHURCH    .  . 

{      OCT    ■   1917 
CAMDEN  M.  COBERN,  D.D.,  Litt.D.  " 

James  M.    Thoburn    Chair    of   Enslish    Bible   and   Philosophy    of   Religion,    Allegheny 

College;  Honorary  Secretary  for  Pennsylvania  and  Member  of  the  General 

Executive    Committee    {American    Branch)    of    the    Egypt 

Exploration    Fund,    etc.,    etc. 


INTRODUCTION    BY 

EDOUARD  NAVILLE,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.S.A: 

Foreign  Associate  of  the  Institut  de  France;  Professor  of  Archeology 
in  the  University  of  Geneva,  Switzerland, 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

1917 


# 


Copyright,  1917,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

[Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America] 

Copyright  Under  the  Articles  of  the  Copyright  Convention  of  the 
Pan-American  Republics  and  the  United  States,  August  11,  1910 

Published,  May,   1917 


DEDICATED  TO 

MY    CO-WORKER    AND 
BEST     CRITIC 

ERNESTINE  CRAFT  COBERN 


PREFACE 

This  book  has  no  competitor,  for  it  is  the  pioneer 
work  in  this  field. 

SpeciaHsts  have  written  many  ponderous  volumes 
touching  limited  areas  of  the  general  subject,  but  no 
one  has  previously  attempted  to  give  a  summary  of  all 
the  discoveries  in  all  lands,  so  far  as  these  in  any  im- 
portant way  have  cast  light  upon  the  New  Testament 
writings  or  the  life  of  the  Primitive  Church. 

The  aim  has  been  to  make  this  work  a  "corpus"  of 
all  the  more  fascinating  facts  and  all  the  most  beautiful 
and  worthy  sayings  that  have  floated  down  to  us  from 
those  opulent  centuries  in  which  the  earliest  Church 
was  trained.  The  mass  of  new  information  comes  from 
the  buried  hordes  of  Greek  and  Coptic  papyri,  recently 
unearthed;  but  for  the  sake  of  vividness  a  certain 
amount  of  supplemental  material  has  occasionally  been 
introduced  from  the  classics  and  early  Fathers,  such 
additions,  however,  being  carefully  marked  in  the 
context  or  notes. 

It  is  perfectly  evident  that  no  one  could  write  of  all 
these  varied  discoveries  with  exhaustive  first-hand 
knowledge.  While  the  writer  has  had  some  experience 
in  excavation,  and  has  been  forced  by  his  college  duties 
to  obtain  a  somewhat  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the 
general  field  and  a  special  knowledge  of  certain  parts 
of  the  field,  yet  slips  of  statement  and  errors  of  judg- 
ment are  inevitable  when  one  ventures — as  in  this  case 
one  was  necessarily  compelled  to  venture — into  domains 
where  personal,  first-hand  knowledge  was  impossible. 

[vii] 


viii  PREFACE 

The  writer  can  only  hope  that  it  will  be  clear  to 
scholars  that  he  has  written  with  a  keen  desire  to  state 
truthfully  the  facts,  and  that  in  cases  where  he  felt  him- 
self unable  to  form  a  personal  judgment  he  has,  in 
most  instances,  been  able  to  have  direct  access  to  the 
best  authorities. 

Credit  for  each  new  fact  or  conclusion  has  been 
given  when  possible;  yet  so  much  of  the  material  has 
been  used  over  and  over  again  in  the  classroom  that 
some  few  references  can  not  be  located  and  some 
scholar  may  thus,  wholly  unintentionally,  fail  to  get  his 
proper  credit  for  some  original  discovery  or  novel 
phrase.  It  may  be  added  that  the  forms  of  personal 
address  and  the  occasional  emphasis  of  personal  ex- 
perience, which  have  proved  effective  with  students, 
have  been  preserved,  so  far  as  practicable,  in  these 
published  lectures. 

It  is  only  because  the  writer  has  had  rather  an  ex- 
ceptional opportunity  not  only  to  see  in  the  field  the 
work  of  many  of  the  masters  in  modern  excavation,  but 
has  also  had  their  cordial  cooperation,  that  he  has  been 
able  to  complete  satisfactorily  this  much-needed  work. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  many  of  the  texts  utilized  in 
this  volume  are  here  translated  into  English  for  the 
first  time,  and  a  number  of  my,  as  yet,  unedited  papyri 
have  also  been  used.  Dr.  Edgar  J.  Goodspeed  of  the 
University  of  Chicago  has  kindly  deciphered  certain 
of  the  Greek  papyri  which  had  proved  baffling,  and  Dr. 
H.  Elyvernat  of  the  Catholic  University  of  America 
has  done  the  same  with  some  of  my  Coptic  texts. 

To  Professor  Naville,  who  is  known  in  every  con- 
tinent for  his  original  contributions  to  the  science  of 
Egyptian  archeology,  I  am  especially  grateful  for  read- 


PREFACE  ix 

ing  this  book  in  manuscript  and  for  writing  the  intro- 
duction to  it.  Dr.  Victor  Martin  of  Geneva,  Switzer- 
land, associate  editor  of  The  Greek  Papyri  in  the  John 
Rylands  Library  (Vol.  II,  1915),  also  read  the  entire 
work  in  manuscript  and  made  a  number  of  important 
suggestions. 

Professor  Stanley  S.  Swartley,  of  the  Allegheny 
College  faculty,  has  read  the  entire  work  as  it  came 
from  the  press,  correcting,  so  far  as  was  possible,  its 
faulty  English,  for  which  work  of  love  he  has  my 
hearty  thanks;  these  are  also  due  in  a  very  special 
way  to  my  honored  colleague  Professor  William  A. 
Elliott  for  his  constant  sympathy  and  frequent  assist- 
ance in  the  interpretation  of  the  more  difficult  papyri. 

Of  the  generosity  of  the  publishers  of  this  work  too 
much  can  not  be  said.  I  will  always  remember  the 
kindness  shown  by  my  friend  Professor  Geo.  W.  Gil- 
more,  whose  breadth  and  minuteness  of  learning  have 
been  a  constant  protection. 

The  following  specialists  have  read  such  limited 
sections  of  the  proof  sheets  as  most  appealed  to  them, 
and  in  some  cases  have  added  invaluable  information: 
Drs.  W.  ]\I.  Flinders  Petrie,  Agnes  Smith  Lewis,  Adolf 
Deissmann,  A.  A.  Vaschalde,  J.  T.  Robertson,  Wallace 
N.  Stearns,  John  R.  Crawford  and  Professor  Howard 
Crosby  Butler.^ 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  these  scholars 
are  in  any  degree  responsible  for  the  general  argument 

'  I  am  indebted  to  Sir  William  M.  Ramsay  and  Professor  George  H. 
Richardson  for  the  loan  ai  several  photographs  which  I  could  not  get  else- 
where; to  Professor  Butler  for  full  permission  to  use  the  very  valuable 
photographs  obtained  by  the  American  Expedition  and  the  Princeton  Ex- 
pedition to  Syria ;  and  to  Houghton  Mifflin  Company  for  the  photograph 
of  Rodolfo  Lanciani  (from  Wanderings  in  the  Roman  Campagna'). 
Other  illustrations  in  this  book,  unless  otherwise  stated,  were  ordinarily 
photographed  by  or  for  the  author. 


X  PREFACE 

or  for  the  final  form  of  any  section  of  the  work.  If 
this  semi-popular  summary  of  important  results, 
written  primarily  for  Bible  teachers  and  ministers, 
shall  be  accounted  of  any  special  value  l)y  technical 
scholars,  this  will  be  chiefly  due  to  these  friends, 
just  mentioned,  who  have  so  generously  encouraged 
the  enterprise.  To  them  belongs  the  praise;  the  mis- 
takes are  mine. 

Camden  M.  Cobern. 
Meadville,  Pa.,  April  19,  1917. 


INTRODUCTION 

By  Edouard  Naville,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.S.A. 

Foreign  Associate  of  the  Institut  de  France 

Professor  of  Archeology  at  the  University  of  Geneva, 

Switzerland 


[xi] 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  most  remarkable  to  see  the  great  'changes 
which  have  been  brought  about  in  the  study  of  antiquity 
by  the  archeological  discoveries  made  at  the  end  of 
last  century  and  the  beginning  of  this. 

I  need  not  recall  here  the  discovery  of  the  ^gean 
civilization,  which  has  revealed  to  us  that  for  several 
centuries  a  culture,  which  originated  at  Crete,  had 
ruled  over  the  Eastern  Mediterranean.  A  vast,  rich 
field  has  thus  been  opened  to  our  researches,  and  we 
can  now  see  and  often  admire  the  remains  of  a  time, 
on  the  history  of  which  we  have  to-day  certain  data. 
These  data  will  undoubtedly  be  increased  when  its  script 
is  deciphered  and  when  the  numerous  inscriptions 
unearthed  no  longer  remain  a  sealed  book. 

These  archeological  discoveries  have  entirely  changed 
the  views  we  had  before  on  Homer,  the  author  to  whom 
was  due  the  only  description  preserved  of  the  dawn  of 
Hellenic  culture.  We  see  how  faithfully  he  pictured  a 
state  of  things  which  lasted  for  centuries,  and  that 
his  work  can  no  more  be  considered  as  mere  fable,  as 
the  product  of  his  imagination.  The  Homeric  poems 
are  now  studied  in  quite  another  light,  their  conformity 
with  what  really  existed  having  been  vindicated  in 
the  most  remarkable  way. 

Greek  civilization  and  history  have  not  alone  prof- 
ited by  the  work  of  the  pick  and  spade.  A  great  deal 
has  also  been  added  to  our  knowledge  of  Scripture 
and  of  the  history  of  Israel,  not  so  much  by  the  scien- 
tific exploration  of  Canaan,  which  is  being  carried  out 

[  xiii  1 


xiv      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

with  untiring  zeal  by  various  societies  like  those  of  the 
English  or  the  German  Funds  for  the  exploration  of 
Palestine,  but  chiefly  by  what  has  come  from  outside. 
Mesopotamia  and  the  remains  of  the  mighty  cities  of 
Assyria  and  Babylonia,  have  helped  us  considerably 
in  the  understanding  and  interpretation  of  some  parts 
of  the  Old  Testament.  But,  curiously  enough,  the 
country  which  has  furnished  the  most  valuable  docu- 
ments, the  bearing  of  which  on  the  knowledge  of  Scrip- 
ture is  not  completely  realized,  is  Egypt. 

The  history  of  Israel  as  a  nation  begins  in  Egypt, 
and  the  most  important  discoveries  in  reference  to  the 
Old  Testament  have  been  made  in  the  valley  of  the 
Nile:  I  refer  to  the  Tel-el-Amarna  tablets  in  Babylo- 
nian cuneiform,  and  the  Aramaic  papyri  of  the  Jewish 
colony  settled  at   Elephantine. 

But  a  new  and  unexpected  light  has  also  been  shed 
on  the  New  Testament  by  the  work  of  the  explorers  in 
Egypt.  The  thousands  of  Greek  papyri  written  before 
and  in  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  that 
vast  literature  so  admirably  described  by  Dr.  Cobern, 
the  greater  part  of  which  comes  from  the  old  city 
of  Oxyrhynchus,  the  present  Behnesa — that  enormous 
collection  of  documents  of  all  kinds — is  a  philological 
and  archeological  treasury  on  which  we  shall  be 
able  to  draw  for  a  better  understanding  of  the  sacred 
text.  Its  language  will  be  our  dictionary,  where 
the  true  sense  of  many  words  is  recorded.  From  the 
great  variety  of  documents,  secular  as  well  as  sacred, 
letters,  legal  deeds,  contracts,  accounts,  and  others 
having  a  decidedly  religious  character,  we  shall  derive 
a  more  correct  view  of  the  peoples  for  whom  the  gos- 
pels and  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul  were  written. 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

For  the  New  Testament  there  is  another  country 
whose  exploration  has  given  first-rate  historical  evi- 
dence: Asia  Minor,  a  field  of  excavation  which  would 
certainly  rival  Egypt  if  it  were  under  other  than  Turk- 
ish rule,  where  also  Sir  William  Ramsay's  researches 
have  shown  what  is  still  to  be  expected.  If  we  add  to  this 
manuscripts  like  the  Sinaiticus  discovered  by  Tischen-* 
dorf  last  century,  and  more  recently  the  Freer  manu- 
script and  the  Syrian  Codex  found  by  Mrs.  Lewis  and 
Mrs.  Gibson  at  Sinai,  we  have  the  chief  bases  on  which 
will  rest  henceforth  the  exegesis  of  the  New  Testament. 

We  have  to  thank  Dr.  Cobern  for  having  given 
us,  with  a  great  deal  of  learning,  a  vivid  account  of  all 
these  mines  of  scholarly  research,  which  are  still  far 
from  having  been  thoroughly  worked.  Especially  their 
bearing  on  the  books  of  the  Bible  has  not  been  ade- 
quately shown,  the  reason  being  that  most  Biblical  schol- 
ars are  still  tied  down  to  the  methods  of  the  destructive 
criticism.  A  book  of  Scripture  is  taken,  a  minute 
philological  analysis  is  made  of  it,  with  often  a  great 
amount  of  scholarship,  but  this  analysis  necessarily 
leads  to  the  discovery  of  apparent  inconsistencies,  of 
disconnections,  of  repetitions,  which  have  been  inter- 
preted as  showing  the  hands  of  different  writers.  The 
whole  process  has  been  one  of  disintegration  of  the 
books,  resulting  in  the  creation  of  a  great  number  of 
authors,  for  the  existence  of  whom  no  historical  proofs 
whatever  can  be  adduced. 

The  archeological  discoveries,  to  which  we  may  add 
also  the  help  drawn  from  anthropology  (for  very  often 
the  difficulties  we  meet  in  antiquity  are  easily  solved 
by  what  we  hear  or  see  at  the  present  day),  have 
greatly  furthered  another  method  which   Sir  William 


xvi      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Ramsay  calls  that  of  the  twentieth  century,  a  designa- 
tion which  is  not  quite  correct,  since  it  existed  before, 
chiefly  in  France.  It  is  not  mainly  negative,  like  much  of 
the  higher  criticism,  but  is  marked  by  "a  growing  power 
of  insight  and  the  power  of  belief  that  springs  there- 
from." Its  main  principle  consists  in  replacing  a  book 
amid  its  environment.  For  whom  was  it  written? 
What  was  the  character  of  the  readers  to  whom  it 
was  dedicated?  Do  the  new  discoveries  give  us  an 
insight  not  only  into  their  material  circumstances,  but 
also  into  their  way  of  thinking  or  speaking  ?  It  is  obvious 
that  the  surroundings  amid  which  author  and  readers 
move,  their  conditions  of  life,  their  intellectual  capaci- 
ties and  their  moral  condition  will  rule  the  language  of 
the  writer,  the  plan  of  his  book,  and  the  meaning  which 
he  gives  to  his  words. 

As  I  said,  let  us  put  a  book  into  its  proper  environ- 
ment, where  and  when  it  was  originated;  let  us  judge 
it  from  what  we  know  of  the  people  who  lived  at  the 
time  it  was  brought  out,  to  whom  it  was  probably  dedi- 
cated and  who  understood  it.  In  this  respect  it  was 
an  invaluable  boon  when  the  readers  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  put  in  possession  of  the  thousands  of  papyri 
discovered  in  Egypt,  of  this  vast  literature,  part  of 
which  is  of  the  time  when  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, gospels  and  epistles,  were  written. 

The  first  result  which  came  out  of  the  study  of 
these  documents  was  to  show  exactly  what  was  the 
language  employed,  and  where  we  are  to  look  for  its 
interpretation.  According  to  Dr.  Cobern,  it  is  first  to 
Professor  Deissmann  that  we  are  indebted  for  setting 
forth  clearly  the  nature  and  the  characteristics  of  the 
language  of  the  New  Testament.     The  language  and 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

style  are  those  of  the  "vulgar  tongue"  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, the  vernacular  of  the  home  and  shop,  used  by 
the  middle  class  and  the  working  man,  the  Koivi]  of 
the  day,  the  language  of  every-day  life  and  not  that  of 
the  school.  It  had  spread  throughout  a  considerable 
part  of  Egypt,  as  we  know  from  the  numerous  papyri 
unearthed  in  that  country. 

And  this  fact  agrees  remarkably  well  with  the 
nature  of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament.  One  may 
even  say  that  it  was  commanded  by  the  doctrine  which 
these  books  contained.  The  gospel  was  not  the  sacred 
book  of  a  chosen  people,  like  the  Hebrews ;  it  was  not  a 
book  written  for  priests  or  for  the  learned,  and  of 
which  they  alone  had  a  right  to  know  the  mysteries. 
"Go  ye  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,"  said  the 
Lord  to  His  disciples  (Matt.  28:  19).  "There  is  no  dis- 
tinction between  Jew  and  Greek,  for  the  same  Lord  is 
Lord  of  all"  (Rom.  10:  12) ;  "The  Gentiles  are  fellow- 
heirs  and  fellow-members  of  the  body,  and  fellow-par- 
takers of  the  promise  in  Christ  Jesus  through  the  gospel" 
(Eph.  2)'^)y  says  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 

The  gospel  was  for  all  nations  and  for  all  condi- 
tions of  men.  "The  poor  have  good  tidings  preached 
to  them,"  says  the  Lord  (Luke  7:22).  The  "small," 
"those  of  low  degree"  and  the  "little  ones"  were  the 
first  disciples  of  the  gospel,  and,  as  Paul  wrote  to  the 
Corinthians,  "not  many  wise  after  the  flesh,  not  many 
mighty,  not  many  noble  are  called."  Therefore,  the  only 
language  which  would  be  used  for  preaching  the  gos- 
pel, and  for  the  books  that  contained  its  doctrine,  was 
the  KoiVT],  that  popular  form  of  the  Greek  language 
which  after  the  conquest  of  Alexander  had  spread  over 
the  whole  of  Western  Asia,  and  particularly  in  Egypt, 


xviii    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

where,  owing  to  the  fact  of  the  kings  being  Greeks,  it 
had  become  the  idiom  of  a  great  part  of  the  population, 
the  language  of  trade  and  of  transactions  in  every-day 
life.  And  this  we  know  from  the  enormous  literature 
which  has  been  discovered. 

And  it  is  only  a  small  part  of  what  existed  in  Egypt. 
At  Tmei  el-Amdid  in  the  Delta,  the  site  of  the  old 
Thmuis,  I  have  dug  in  a  series  of  rooms  which  con- 
tained thousands  of  papyri  absolutely  carbonized.  Here 
and  there  plants  had  grown  in  them,  finding  them  a 
good  soil.  One  could  see  that  they  were  Greek;  one  or 
two  of  them  have  been  rescued.  But  it  was  in  vain 
that  I  attempted  to  send  some  of  them  to  the  British 
Museum;  they  arrived  there  as  mere  ashes.  Certainly, 
as  regards  size,  the  archives  of  Thmuis  could  well 
compare  with  those  of  Oxyrhynchus. 

Greek  had  become  in  Egypt  a  language  commonly 
used  by  the  middle  and  lower  classes,  therefore  it  is  in 
these  texts  that  we  are  now  to  look  for  the  interpreta- 
tion of  certain  words  which  seem  to  be  peculiar  to  the 
New  Testament  and  were  thought  to  be  translations 
from  Hebrew  or  Aramaic.  The  papyri  will  teach  us 
their  proper  sense,  and  not  the  elegant  Attic  prose  of 
Plato  or  Isocrates. 

But  it  is  not  only  as  regards  language  that  we  derive 
more  information ;  we  now  know  better  the  conditions  of 
life  of  the  people  of  that  time,  their  occupations,  their 
family  intercourse  and  the  interests  toward  which  their 
thoughts  and  their  activity  were  daily  directed.  We 
see  now  that  Paul,  in  his  epistles,  did  not  forge  new 
words  for  his  teaching;  he  did  not  invent  new  expres- 
sions. He  used  those  with  which  his  contemporaries 
were    familiar,    giving    them    a    Christian    sense;    for 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

instance,  the  titles  by  which  the  emperor  was  addrest 
are  the  words  apphed  to  God  himself,  or  to  Jesus 
Christ.  Following-  Deissmann,  Dr.  Cobern  shows  in 
a  very  interesting  way  that  the  title  "Lord"  given  to 
Jesus  is  seen  from  the  papyri  to  have  had  a  deeper 
meaning  than  we  had  ever  supposed.  Since  the  title 
KiJQiog  "Lord"  could  only  be  used  after  Csesar  had 
been  acknowledged  as  God,  and  implied,  therefore,  that 
the  emperor  had  been  deified,  the  term  KijQiog  ^lr\oovq 
(Lord  Jesus)  was  a  distinct  ascription  of  deity  to 
Christ,  and  its  use  must  almost  have  been  accounted 
an  act  of  direct  antagonism  to  the  claims  of  the  Roman 
emperor. 

The  Christians  did  not  go  out  of  the  Roman  world; 
they  used  and  appropriated  whatever  they  could  adapt 
of  it  to  their  belief  and  to  their  way  of  living.  In  art 
they  gave  new  interpretations  to  old  and  familiar  sym- 
bols. De  Rossi  showed  this,  years  ago,  in  his  works  on 
the  catacombs;  for  instance,  the  representation  of  the 
Good  Shepherd  was  identical  with  that  of  'EQfxfig 
KQioqpOQog;  and  Orpheus,  who  attracted  even  animals 
by  the  harmony  of  his  music,  was  frequently  taken  as  a 
symbol  of  the  attraction  which  the  new  preaching 
exerted  over  the  hearers. 

The  holy  oracles  were  communicated,  not  in  a  lan- 
guage miraculously  originated  or  artificially  perfect, 
"a  language  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  but  in  a  speech  which 
was  in  a  peculiar  and  universal  sense  the  language  of 
the  people.  This  fact,  which  comes  out  in  such  a  strik- 
ing way  as  we  study  the  papyri,  is  also  the  leading 
feature  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  translations,  the 
Coptic. 

One  often  speaks  of  the  Coptic  language.  In  one  sense 


XX       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

this  expression  is  not  correct;  there  is  no  classic  Coptic 
Hke  classic  Greek;  there  are  only  Coptic  dialects.  Until 
a  few  years  ago  there  were  three  of  them  known ;  there 
is  now  a  fourth,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  discov- 
ery of  some  papyri  among  ruins  which  have  not  yet 
been  completely  explored  may  reveal  a  fifth  dialect, 
because  these  dialects  were  originally  the  local  speech 
of  a  certain  region.  Coptic  shows  what  might  have 
been  suspected,  that  the  spoken  language  of  the  people 
differed  from  the  book  language  written  in  hieroglyphs 
or  even  in  demotic. 

When  the  Christian  missionaries  came  to  Egypt 
they  had  to  do  nearly  the  same  as  the  missionaries  of 
the  present  day  coming  to  a  country  where  there  is  no 
writing.  They  could  not  use  hieroglyphs;  they  applied 
the  Greek  alphabet  to  note  what  they  heard,  what  was 
the  common  language  of  the  people,  and,  since  the 
Greek  alphabet  was  not  sufficient  to  express  all  the 
sounds  which  struck  their  ears,  they  added  to  it  six  new 
letters.  Coptic  is  the  vernacular  of  the  different  parts 
of  Egypt  written  in  Greek  characters. 

"The  language  of  the  people"  does  not  mean  a  vulgar 
speech,  incapable  of  beauty,  and  choosing  in  preference 
prosy  and  commonplace  expressions.  The  people's  lan- 
guage, when  it  is  the  voice  of  the  heart,  the  undisguised 
utterance  of  deep  feeling,  can  attain  remarkable  beauty. 
The  total  absence  of  artificial  ornamentation,  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  descriptions,  is  precisely  what  produces 
the  most  vivid  picture  of  a  scene,  or  gives  it  the  strong- 
est emotional  effect.  Let  us  look  at  the  parables — 
how  brightly  everything  comes  out  in  what  might  often 
be  called  a  child's  language.  Refined  art  could  hardly 
appeal  more  strongly  to  our  intimate  feelings  than  the 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

few  strokes  which  describe  the  prodigal  son  or  the 
good  shepherd. 

Dr.  Cobern  says  rightly  that  Paul's  language  is 
often  lifted  to  an  unusual  elevation  of  style,  which  has 
excited  the  admiration  of  experts  in  Greek  language 
and  literature  like  Von  Wilamowitz.  Paul's  contem- 
poraries called  his  letters  weighty  and  strong.  For 
Paul,  unlike  the  disciples,  was  a  man  of  education;  he 
had  received  a  Greek  training  in  the  learned  city  of 
Tarsus,  and  tho  he  also  used  the  language  of  the  people, 
nevertheless  in  his  epistles,  in  his  way  of  reasoning, 
one  recognizes  that  he  had  been  under  the  influence 
of  teachers. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  three  men  in  the  Bible  who 
are  said  to  have  had  the  most  intense  literary  activity, 
Moses,  who  wrote  the  law;  Ezra,  who  revived  it  after 
the  captivity;  and  Paul,  who  gave  a  concrete  form  to 
the  Christian  doctrine — who,  it  might  be  said  codified 
it — were  all  men  who  had  received  a  complete  educa- 
tion in  the  country  which  they  inhabited.  Moses  was 
instructed  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  Ezra 
was  a  ready  Mesopotamian  scribe,  having  gone  through 
the  teaching  of  this  class  of  men,  who  were  the  learned 
of  the  country ;  besides,  he  was  "the  scribe  of  the  words, 
of  the  commandments  of  the  Lord."  Paul  had  not  only 
received  a  Greek  education  at  Tarsus,  where  he  was 
born,  but  he  was  also  brought  up  in  Jerusalem  at  the 
feet  of  Gamaliel.  Thus  all  these  were  men  of  the 
Hebrew  law,  and  at  the  same  time  imbued  with  the 
knowledge  and  wisdom  of  the  people  among  whom 
they  lived. 

I  can  not  go  over  the  various  fields  of  archeology 
or  literature  which  have  a  bearing  on  the  New  Testa- 


xxii     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

nicnt:  the  manuscripts,  some  of  which  have  been  dis- 
covered quite  recently;  the  numerous  reHgious  writings 
which  are  contemporary  with  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  Church ;  and  what  is  properly  archeology,  the 
inscriptions  or  the  monuments  found  in  excavations, 
whether  these  monuments  be  temples,  constructions, 
or  small  objects  like  coins.  This  part  of  archeology  is 
intimately  connected  with  geography;  it  implies  travel- 
ing in  the  country  and  exploring  the  spots  concerned. 
This  might  be  called  the  practical  research,  which  often 
not  only  modifies,  but  even  upsets  the  results  obtained 
in  the  library  from  mere  literary  evidence. 

The  reader  who  follows  Dr.  Cobern  in  his  elaborate 
description  of  all  the  means  supplied  to  us  by  arche- 
ology for  a  better  knowledge  of  certain  epochs  of 
antiquity  can  not  fail  to  be  struck  by  the  change  which 
the  discoveries  have  brought  about  in  the  methods  and 
in  the  ruling  principle  of  historical  research.  This 
change  might  rather  be  called  a  return  to  sound  his- 
torical principles.  History  has  to  rest  on  documents 
such  as  they  are,  in  their  plain  sense,  and  not  on  theo- 
ries said  to  be  inferences  from  those  documents  and 
which  are  based  more  or  less  on  preconceived  ideas. 
At  the  same  time,  these  documents  have  to  be  tested 
as  much  as  possible  from  archeology,  from  the  actual 
remains  of  what  the  ancients  have  made,  have  touched, 
or  have  seen. 

Truth  will  best  be  reached  by  the  concurrence  and 
the  mutual  help  both  of  literary  and  archeological  evi- 
dence. Considering  only  what  is  within  the  limits  of 
this  book — the  New  Testament — the  recent  discoveries 
compel  us,  as  we  said,  to  replace  the  authors  of  its 
different  parts  in  the  time  when  they  are  said  to  have 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

lived,  and  among  their  readers  or  the  hearers  to  whom 
they  spoke.  This  seems  to  the  present  writer  the  hest 
answer  to  the  radical  criticism  and  the  most  telling  way 
of  showing  how  insufficient  and  often  misleading  are 
its  results,  which  are  generally  brought  forward  as 
being  above  discussion. 

If  we  put  side  by  side  the  gospels,  the  epistles  of 
Paul,  and  the  writings  which  have  been  discovered  of 
the  first  century,  we  shall  find  in  those  "as  it  were  a 
new  autographic  commentary,"  the  explanation  of  many 
expressions  showing  that  "the  New  Testament  wri- 
tings were  not  theological  treatises,  but  were  mostly 
composed  in  the  now  technical  and  rather  careless  lan- 
guage of  the  street  and  home."  This  comparative 
study  has  led  Dr.  Milligan  to  declare  that  "in  view  of 
all  the  new  light  coming  upon  the  question  from  recent 
discovery,  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  "with  the  probable 
exception  of  2  Peter,  all  our  New  Testament  writings 
may  now  be  placed  within  the  first  century,"  tho  the 
collection  called  the  New  Testament  may  be  of  much 
later  date. 

This  goes  a  long  way  to  disprove  many  of  the  criti- 
cal theories,  attributing  parts  of  a  book  like  the  gospel 
of  John  to  a  later  epoch,  and  cutting  it  up  between 
various  authors,  some  of  them  quite  unknown  and 
mere  literary  creations. 

Archeology  has  already  done  a  great  deal  to  modify 
the  ideas  or  systems  based  on  mere  literary  or  philo- 
logical evidence.  Here  we  may  confidently  look  for- 
ward to  new  discoveries.  We  can  hardly  admit  that 
the  soil  of  Egypt,  which  has  already  restored  to  us 
such  invaluable  treasures,  is  exhausted.  We  can  not 
say  what  may  be  recovered  from  the  ruined  mounds  of 


xxiv    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

another  Oxyrhynchus.  For  instance,  there  is  no 
impossibihty  that  some  day  a  fortunate  explorer,  or 
perhaps  a  fellah  digging  for  manure  among  the  decayed 
bricks  of  ruined  houses,  may  come  upon  a  deposit  of 
papyri  in  which  there  will  be  a  copy  of  the  Septuagint 
of  a  time  not  very  remote  from  that  when  the  transla- 
tion was  made.  One  may  fancy  what  a  prodigious 
effect  such  a  find  would  produce  in  the  studies  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  especially  as  regards  the  radical 
higher  criticism. 

If  we  think  how  much  light  the  documents  which 
we  now  possess  have  thrown  upon  the  interpretation 
of  Scripture,  we  may  well  hope  that  further  excava- 
tions will  bring  out  fresh  material  and  new  help  for 
the  understanding  of  the  Holy  Books,  which  are  the 
spiritual  food  of  a  considerable  part  of  mankind. 

Edouard  Naville. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface         vii 

Introduction ^"i 

List    of    Illustrations xxxi 

PART  I 

THE  GREEK  PAPYRI  AND  OTHER  MANUSCRIPTS 

STUDIED  WITH  ESPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO 

THEIR  BEARING  ON  THE  NEW 

TESTAMENT  WRITINGS 

I.  The  Story  of  Modern  Discoveries  of  Papyri.      .      .       3 

1.  The  Origin,  Nature,  and  Value  of  Papyrus  Docu- 

ments      3 

2.  The  Earliest  Finds  of  Greek  Papyri  Dating  from 

the  Apostolic  and  Adjoining  Centuries  ...       6 

3.  Dr.    Deissmann's    Epoch-making    Discovery    Con- 

cerning the  Papyri 30 

4.  Most  Recent  Discovery  and  Publication  of  New 

Material 39 

5.  A  General  View  of  the  District  Where  Most  of  the 

Papyri  Were  Found 65 

(i)   The  Fayum 65 

(2)  The  Common  Life  of  Some  Egyptian  Towns 
in  the  First  Century  of  the  Christian  Era, 

and  Later 75 

Life  in  Socnopaei  Nesus  in  the  Apostolic 

Era 75 

Life  in  Oxyrhynchus  in  the  Early  Chris- 
tian Period 88 

11.  New  Light  from  the  Papyri  Upon  the  Language  of 

the  New  Testament 98 

I.  New  Light  Upon  the  Origin  and  Textual  Form  of 

the  New  Testament 98 

[  XXV  ] 


xxvi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

2.  New  Light  Upon  the  Grammar  of  the  New  Testa- 

ment        io6 

3.  New  Light  Upon  the  Style  of  the  New  Testament  .    112 

4.  New    Light   Upon   the   Vocabulary    of   the    New 

Testament 119 

ill.  Ancient  New  Testaments  Recently  Discovered     .    132 

1.  Greek  New  Testaments .132 

(i)  Ancient  New  Testaments  Previously  Known  133 

(2)  Newly    Discovered    Fragments    of    Ancient 

New  Testaments  (4th-5th  Centuries) 
Written  Upon  Skins  and  Catalogued  by 
Gregory 139 

(3)  Recently  Discovered  Portions  of  New  Testa- 

ments (3d-4th  Centuries)  Written  Upon 
Papyrus  and  Catalogued  by  Gregory  and 

Kenyon 143 

Ancient  Papyrus  New  Testaments  Cata- 
logued by  Sir  F.  G.  Kenyon  .      .      .144 

(4)  Other   More   Recently   Discovered   Ancient 

New  Testaments  on  Papyri,  Parchment  or 
Vellum  Dating  from  the  Third  to  the  Sixth 

Centuries 149 

An  Ancient  Fourth  or  Fifth  Century 
New  Testament  Containing  the  Entire 
Four  Gospels  and  Fragments  of  the 
Pauline  Epistles.  (Washington  Codex. 

1908-9) 160 

Other  Fragments  of  Ancient  New  Tes- 
taments— One  Written  on  Pieces  of  a 
Broken  Pot 164 

(5)  Special  Importance  of  the  Newly  Discovered 

New  Testament  Fragments  for  Text  Criti- 
cism       166 

2.  Syriac  New  Testaments I75 

(i)   Newly   Discovered  Syriac   New   Testament 

from  the  Convent  of  St.  Catherine  .     .      .176 

3.  Coptic  New  Testaments 186 

4.  Ancient  New  Testaments  in  Latin  and  Other  Lan- 

guages     19- 

5.  A  Very  Ancient  "Harmony  of  the  Gospels"     .      .   200 


CONTENTS  xxvii 

PAGE 

IV.  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament  from  Primitive 

Christian  Documents  Recently  Discovered  .       211 

1.  The  Logia,  or  Newly  Discovered  "Sayings  of  Our 

Lord" 211 

2.  New  Fragments  of  Lost  Gospels,  Acts,  Revelations, 

etc 219 

(i)  The  Gospel  of  Peter 219 

(2)  Revelation  of  Peter 225 

(3)  Other   Fragments   of    Lnportancc   Recently 

Recovered 228 

(4)  Importance  of  These  Apocryphal   Gospels, 

Acts,  etc 241 

3.  Some  Famous  Ancient  Documents,  Recently  Re- 

covered, which  Mention  or  Use  the  New  Testa- 
ment        245 

(i)  Apology  of  Aristides 245 

(2)  The  Shepherd  of  Hermas 251 

(3)  The  Ring  of  Pope  Xystus 254 

(4)  Lost  Works  of  Early  Christian  Fathers  Re- 

cently Discovered 255 

Irenaeus,  Apostolic  Preaching     .      .      .  255 

Origen  on  the  Book  of  Revelation    .      .  257 

Letters  of  Ignatius 259 

4.  The  Didache  or  "Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles"  260 

5.  Libelli 271 

6.  Ancient  Christian  Sermons 277 

7.  Ancient  Prayers  and  Amulets 290 

8.  Ancient  Christian  Hymns 300 

9.  Private  and  Official  Letters  of  Early  Christians     .  320 
10.  Liturgical  Fragments  and  Biblical  Quotations  .      .  334 


xxviii  CONTENTS 


PART  II 

THE  MONUMENTS,  INSCRIPTIONS,  AND  OTHER 
ANCIENT  REMAINS  STUDIED  WITH  ESPECIAL 
REFERENCE  TO  THEIR  BEARING  ON  THE 
LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  THE  PRIMI- 
TIVE CHURCH 

PAGE 

I.  New  Light  from  Graves  and  Buried  Cities  .     .      .351 

1.  New  Light  from  the  Land  of  Palestine  .     .      .      -351 

2.  New  Light  on  the  First  Century  from  Pompeii .      .   yjZ 

3.  New  Light  on  the  First  Century  from  the  Roman 

Catacombs 383 

4.  New  Light  from  Christian  Cemeteries  in  Egypt     .   402 

5.  New  Light  from  Second  and  Tliird  Century  Chris- 

tian Gravestones  in  Phrygia 412 

6.  New  Light  from  the  Second.  Third  and  Fourth 

Century  Monuments  at  Salona,  Dalmatia  .      .   432 

7.  New  Light  from  Fourth  and  Fifth  Century  Chris- 

tian   Basihcas    and    Sixth    Century    Christian 
Towns  Still  Standing  in  the  Deserts  of  Syria.   440 

II.  New  Light  from  Famous  Cities  Mentioned  in  the 

New  Testament 461 

1.  Recent  Excavations  at  Ephesus 461 

2.  Recent  Excavations  at  Athens 482 

3.  Recent  Excavations  at  Corinth 493 

4.  Recent  Excavations  at  Rome 502 

5.  Explorations  in  Various  Galatian  Cities  •   .      .      .521 

(i)  Lystra 525 

(2)  Derbe 526 

(3)  Iconium   ,      . 5^7 

(4)  Pisidian  Antioch 531 

6.  Side-Lights  from  Other  Cities  Visited  by  St.  Paul  541 

(i)  Tarsus 541 

(2)  Damascus 544 

(3)  Philippi 545 

(4)  Thessalonica 547 

(5)  Antioch  in  Syria 549 

(6)  Cyprus 552 


CONTENTS  xxix 

PAGE 

(7)  Assos 553 

(8)  Miletus 554 

(9)  Rhodes 556 

(10)  Caesarea 556 

(11)  Crete  and  Melita 557 

(12)  Syracuse 557 

(13)  PuteoH 558 

(14)  From  Puteoli  to  Rome 560 

7.  Side-Lights  from  Cities  Mentioned  in  the  Book  of 

Revelation  or  Influential  in  the  Early  Church  .  561 

(i)   Ephesus 561 

(2)  Smyrna 5^1 

(3)  Pergamum 563 

(4)  Thyatira 564 

(5)  Sardis 565 

(6)  Philadelphia •      •  569 

(7)  Laodicea 570 

8.  Other  Cities  Specially  Influential  in  Early  Chris- 

tianity     571 

III.  New  Docuaientary  and  Other  Evidence  Throwing 

Light  Upon  the  Early  Christian  Centuries     .   577 

1.  The  Environment  of  the  Holy  Land  in  the  First 

Century 577 

2.  Some  Literary  Habits  of  the  First  Century  Illus- 

trated in  the  Papyri 582 

3.  A  New  View  of  the  First  Century  from  a  Re-ex- 

amination of  the  Classical  Texts  in  the  Light 

of  New  Discoveries 59° 

4.  New  Light  on  the  Jewish  Literature  (non-Biblical) 

which  Chiefly  Influenced  the  Theological  and 
Ethical  Thought  of  Palestine  in  the  First  Cen- 
tury   603 

5.  Intellectual,  Social,  and  Religious  Life  of  the  First 

and  Adjoining  Centuries  as  Seen  in  the  Papyri, 

etc 635 

Recapitulation 670 

Scripture  Texts,  Illustrated 687 

Index         689 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


A  Woman  Teacher 

A  Gladiator 

Nero  as  a  Youth ]> 

A  Lady,  First  or  Second  Century 

A  Gentleman,  First  or  Second  Century.  . . 

Dr.  Adolf  Deissmann 

Dr.  B.  P.  Grenfell 

Dr.  Caspar  Rene  Gregory 

Dr.  Arthur  S.  Hunt 

Dr.  James  Hope  Moulton 

Dr.  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie 

Dr.  A.  T.  Robertson 

Dr.  Edouard  Naville 


.Frontispiece 


FACING    PAGE 


32 


Temple  of  Artemis  (Diana),  Sardis. 

Temple,  Pergamum 

Wall-painting  on  Tomb,  Marissa.  .  . 
Capitol  and  Propyl?eum,  Timgad.  .  . 

Ancient  Ruins,  Csesarea 

Columbarium,  Beit  Jibrin 


68 


Equestrian  Statue  of  Nero 

Pompeian  Noble 

Emperor  Tiberius  and  a  Woman 

Statue  of  a  Child 

Famous  Pompeian  Banker,  Apostolic  Age.^ 

Augustus  

Nero 

Vespasian    

Titus 

Domitian   

Trajan 

Hadrian 

Alarcus  Aurelius   

Constantine    


69 


136 


Leaf  from  St.  Matthew's  Gospel , 137 

[  xxxi  1 


XXXI I 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Coptic  Letter 


FACING    PAGE 

196 


Self-cooker 

Loaf  of  Bread 

Wall-painting 

Surgical  Instruments  .  , 
Lamps  and  Candelabra. 


197 


Church,  Ruweha   ^l 

Church  and  Baptistry,  Kasr  Iblisu [ 

Church  of  SS.  Sergius  and  Bacchus,  Umni  f 
is-Surab   J 

Christian  Shops,  Bazaar,  Ba  udeh | 

Christian  Tavern  or  Cafe,  Serdjilla 

Christian  House,  Serdjilla 


Inscription  on  Gravestone,  Csesarea. 


Note  About  a  Hoe ^, 

Letter  from  Parents  to  Their  Son 


280 

281 

328 
329 


O.  Marucchi  

Sir  William  M.  Ramsay 

Dr.  Rodolfo  Lanciani 

Dr.  Agnes  Smith  Lewis 

Giovanni  Battista  De  Rossi .  .  . 
Dr.  Margaret  Dunlop  Gibson. 

Melchior  De  Vogiie 

Dr.  J.  Rendel  Harris 

Prof.  Howard  Crosby  Butler. 


1 


356 


Map  of  Palestine. 


Christian   Villa,    El-Barah 

Christian  Houses,  Djebel  Riha. 


Wine  Shop  or  "Saloon,"  Pompeii 

Bronze  Door  of  Roman  Villa,  Pompeii. 
Wall  Picture,  Pompeii 


Seated  Statue  of  Tiberius ^ 

Blasphemous  Crucifix 

Mark  of  the  Beast 

Appian  Way 


368 
369 

376 
377 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xxxiii 

FACING    PAGE 

Temple  of  Jupiter  (Esculapius?),  Spalato.1 

Golden  Gate,  Spalato 1 448 

Peristyle,  Spalato J 

Christian  Convent,  Syria 1 

Octagonal  Church  and  Restaurant,  Mond- 1 449 

jeleia   


Christian  Tomb,  Ruvveha 

Christian  Tomb,  Rebefah 

Christian  Tomb,  Marata 

Church  of  St.  George,  Zorah 

Basalt  Door  of  Christian  House,  Khan  Sebil^ 


452 


Christian  Chapel,  Kfelliisin ') 

Church  and  Palace,  North  Syria 1 453 

Christian  House,  Dilloza J 

Paved  Road,  Ephesus 1 

Site  of  Temple  of  Diana,  Ephesus 1 472 

Double  Church,  Ephesus J 

Library   Building,   Ephesus ^ 

Theater,  Ephesus J ^ 

Oldest  Pictures  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter. 

St.  Paul's  Gate,  Tarsus 

Picture  of  St.  Paul i 492 

Pictures  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul 1 

River  Cydnus,  Tarsus j 

Temple    of    Apollo    and     the     Acropolis,! 

Corinth > 493 

Excavations,  Corinth J 

Seated  Statuette  of  Christ  as  a  Youth 508 

Statue  of  Christ  as  the  Good  Shepherd.  .  .1 

Head  of  Statue  of  Antinoiis j ^ 

Chariot  Race   ~] 

Christian  Bas-relief   [- 514 

Pagan  Priestess | 

Fragments   from  Temple,  Pergamum 515 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 
xxxiv  1-1:3  i    '-'^ 

FACING   TAGE 
....    536 

Gravestones  from  Blaundos 

Base  of  First  Statue,  Pisidian  Antioch.  .  .  .\ 537 

Tombstone,  Altar  Form,  with  Epitaph.  .  •  -J 

Fragment  of  Jewish  Sarcophagus | 550 

Christian  Sarcophagus 

Great  Chahce  of  Antioch  with  Details 55i 


Christian  Church,  Sardis ^  •  •  • 1 5^8 

Temple  of  Artemis  (Diana),  Sardis J 

Church  of  St.  Simeon  Stylites,  Kalat-Semanj 569 

Mosaic  from  Christian  Bath,  Serd3illa J 

.  .  640 

Sarcophagus,  North  Palestme 

Art  Fragments,  Ascalon l 641 

Sculptures,  Ascalon    J 


PART  ONE 

THE   GREEK   PAPYRI   AND    OTHER 
MANUSCRIPTS 

STUDIED  WITH  ESPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THEIR 
BEARING  ON   THE   NEW   TESTAMENT   WRITINGS 


[I] 


THE  STORY  OF  MODERN   DISCOVERIES   OF 

PAPYRI 

I.  The  Origin,  Nature,  and  Value  of  Papyrus 
Documents 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  effect  upon 
civilization  of  the  invention  of  a  writing  material  made 
from  the  papyrus  plant.  Previous  to  that  epochal  event 
the  Egyptians  had  engraved  their  records  upon  stones, 
and  perhaps  in  some  parts  of  the  world  clay  tablets 
were  already  being  used  to  record  the  thoughts  of 
men;  but  rock  monuments  and  little  clay  bricks,  tho 
not  easily  destroyed,  can  bear  no  comparison  with  the 
delicate  yet  firm  and  portable  papyrus  as  a  medium  for 
preserving  a  nation's  literature  and  encouraging  a 
people's  correspondence. 

The  oldest  papyrus  known  just  as  we  have  it,  was 
written  over  4500  years  ago;  but  even  this  is  merely 
the  copy  of  a  treatise  a  thousand  years  older.  At  least 
as  early  as  1500  b.  c.  tanned  skins  were  used  as  writing 
material  in  Egypt  as  in  Western  Asia;  but  while  this 
material  could  produce  luxurious  specimens  of  book- 
making,  and  altho  even  yet  the  Jews  write  the  sacred 
synagog  rolls  upon  this  material,  yet  almost  as  soon  as 
Egyptian  history  opens,  the  papyrus  became  universally 
popular  and  its  use  continued  uninterruptedly  for  nearly 
four  thousand  years.  The  history  of  the  world's  lan- 
guages can  be  read  from  the  papyri;  for  these  contain 
records  written  in  hieroglyphic,  hieratic,  and  demotic 
Egyptian,   Coptic,  Aramaic,   Hebrew,   and  Arabic,   as 

[3] 


4         THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

well  as  in  the  oldest  Greek  and  Latin  script  in  exist- 
ence, while  some  of  the  most  valued  ancient  documents 
in  almost  every  European  language  were  preserved 
upon  this  imperishable  material. 

What  was  the  process  by  which  this  papyrus  paper 
was  prepared  in  the  days  of  Moses  and  the  patriarchs, 
and  in  the  days  of  Jesus  and  the  apostles?  It  was  made 
by  cutting  the  white  pith  of  the  papyrus  into  long  strips, 
which  were  laid  down  vertically,  over  which  other 
strips  were  placed  horizontally,  the  two  layers  being 
either  pasted  together,  perhaps  with  the  aid  of  Nile 
water,  as  Pliny  tells  us,  or  else  prest  together  into  a 
single  sheet,  which  was  dried  in  the  sun,  hammered 
and  rolled  into  flat  layers,  and  then  rubbed  thoroughly 
with  some  smooth  substance  until  it  was  ready  for  use. 
The  sheets  made  in  this  way  were  then  pasted  together 
to  form  a  roll  of  any  length  desired,  one  or  two  speci- 
mens over  a  hundred  feet  in  length  being  yet  in  ex- 
istence. 

The  papyrus  book  (codex)  does  not  come  into 
existence  before  the  first  century  of  our  era  and  does 
not  become  common  until  two  or  three  centuries  later. 
It  was  a  direct  copy  of  the  parchment  or  vellum  codex 
which  had  been  made  possible  by  the  new  process  of 
preparing  these  skins  (197-158  B.C.)  so  that  they 
could  be  written  upon  on  both  sides.  By  the  third  cen- 
tury of  our  era  these  two  processes  of  book-making 
were  both  being  used  freely,  altho,  for  the  finest  work, 
the  vellum  codices  stood  unrivaled.^  Indeed,  there  has 
been  nothing  equal,  even  in  modern  times,  to  the  fine 
purple  skins  written  in  gold  and  silver  which  come  to 

^  The  technical  distinction  between  parchment  and  vellum  is  that  the 
former  is  made  from  sheepskin  and  the  latter  from  calf. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  5 

us,  especially  from  the  third  to  the  sixth  centuries. 
But  while  the  parchment  and  vellum  manuscripts  con- 
tinued to  be  used  for  church  Bibles  and  legal  docu- 
ments for  many  centuries,  some  of  the  latter  even  ap- 
pearing as  late  as  the  middle  ages,  yet  for  the  private 
New  Testaments  of  the  early  centuries  and  for  ordinary 
letter  writing  and  business  purposes  the  tough  but 
inexpensive  papyrus  was  almost  universally  used.  The 
ordinary  size  of  a  papyrus  sheet  in  the  days  of  the 
apostles  was  about  five  by  ten  inches,  and  the  ordi- 
nary grade  was  often  sold  in  rolls  of  perhaps  twenty 
sheets,  the  price  of  a  sheet  being  a  little  more  than 
twenty-five  cents.  While  the  width  of  the  cheaper 
papyri  was  only  about  six  inches,  a  better  cjuality  called 
Charta  Liz'ia,  after  the  Emperor's  wife,  reached  a 
width  of  eight  inches  or  more;  and  the  highest  grade, 
called  Hieratic  a  (or  Augusta,  in  honor  of  the  Emperor), 
ran  about  nine  and  a  half  inches  in  width.  In  the  days 
of  Claudius  an  even  better  grade  was  introduced,  which 
averaged  from  twelve  to  eighteen  inches  wide.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  any  New  Testament  writer  had  ever 
in  his  life  used  the  higher  grades  of  papyrus,  and  it 
can  be  counted  absolutely  settled  that  every  book  of  the 
New  Testament  was  written  upon  the  medium  or  poorer 
qualities.  But  in  all  the  years  since  linen  paper  came  into 
common  use — in  the  eighth  or  ninth  century  of  our 
era — it  has  never  been  honored  as  was  the  humble 
papyri  of  that  first  century  which  received  the  auto- 
graphs of  the  apostles  and  evangelists  as  they  told 
the  story  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth, 

"A   poor   man    toiling   with   the   poor." " 

"  As  the  reader's  eye  must  not,  in  a  popular  work,  be  burdened  with 
numerous  footnotes,  the  author  desires  here,  once  for  all,  to  record  his  con- 


6         THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

2.  The  Earliest  Finds  of  Greek  Papyri   Dating 
FROM  THE  Apostolic  and  Adjoining  Centuries 

No  one  discovery  for  a  thousand  years  has  equaled 
in  importance  that  of  Grenfell  and  Hunt  when,  in 
1897,  they  excavated  for  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund 
the  now  famous  site  of  Behnesa,  the  ancient  Oxy- 
rhynchus  (situated  in  the  Nile  Valley  some  120  miles 
south  of  Cairo),  and  discovered  literally  tons  of  Greek 
papyri,  hundreds  of  which  were  written  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  New  Testament.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  no  one  previous  to  this  time  had  ever  read  even 
one  autograph  manuscript  which  had  been  written  by 
a  scribe  of  the  first  century  in  the  language  which  the 
common  people  of  Palestine  and  Egypt  used  in  that 
era,  the  sensational  nature  of  this  discovery  may  be 
more  easily  realized. 

To  be  sure,  many  papyri  had  been  found  previous 
to  this  time.  The  use  of  this  writing  material  must 
have  begun  in  Egypt  nearly  4000  B.C.,  and  up  to  the 
time  of  Alexander  the  Great  it  was  carried  on  as  a 
government  monopoly,  the  ancient  scribes  of  Egypt 
being  almost  as  voluminous  writers  as  the  scholars 
of  to-day.  These  papyri  were  well  known  from  the 
days  of  the  earliest  visitors,  but  had  not  been  counted 


stant  and  inestimable  indebtedness  in  every  chapter  of  the  present  work,  to 
the  great  encyclopedias  and  Biblical  dictionaries.  Hereafter,  such  refer- 
ences will  be  made  only  in  exceptional  cases  or  where  differences  of 
opinion  are  involved.  See  for  further  particulars  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 
"Papyrus,"  "Manuscripts,"  "Parchment";  International  Standard  Bible 
Encyclopedia,  "Papyrus";  Milligan's  The  New  Testament  Documents,  and 
Wessely's  brilliant  summary  in  the  opening  section  of  his  Aiis  der  Welt 
der  Papyri;  also  Breasted's  article,  "The  Physical  Processes  of  Writing  in 
the  Early  Orient  and  Their  Relation  to  the  Origin  of  the  Alphabet,"  in 
the  American  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages,  1916;  249^'. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  7 

of  any  great  importance.  About  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  a  number  of  charred  rolls  in  Greek, 
which  proved  to  be  of  a  literary  character,  were  found 
during  excavations  at  Herculaneum  but  were  not  re- 
garded as  of  value.^  In  1778,  some  Arabs  found  40 
or  50  papyrus  rolls  in  an  earthen  pot,  and  tho  most  of 
these  were  destroyed,  one  was  brought  from  Egypt  to 
Europe;  but  there  was  no  particular  disappointment 
when  it  became  known  that  these  documents  were  so 
abundant  along  the  Nile  that  the  natives  were  using 
them  for  fuel  or  burning  them  for  their  pleasant 
fragrance.  Who  cared  what  the  Ptolemies  were  writ- 
ing to  their  friends  or  what  kind  of  barbarous  Greek 
they  used?  For  over  forty  years  nothing  more  ap- 
peared in  the  field  of  papyrus  discovery  worth  men- 
tioning, but  in  1820,  on  the  site  of  the  Serapeum  at 
Memphis,  a  group  of  documents  was  found  dating 
from  the  second  century  B.C.  It  was  chiefly  with  the 
help  and  under  the  inspiration  of  this  discovery  that 
George  Ebers  composed  his  fascinating  Egyptian 
novels.  The  next  year  a  book  of  the  Iliad,  many  centuries 
older  than  any  previously  seen,  was  bought  near  Ele- 
phantine and  brought  to  England;  shortly  after 
a  roll  containing  the  Lycophron  and  other  orations  of 
Hypereides  was  discovered;  in  1856  the  funeral  oration 
of  this  celebrated  writer  was  obtained,  while  in  1855  the 
Louvre  had  acquired  a  long-lost  work  by  Alcman.  By 
this  time  so  many  Ptolemaic  documents  had  accumulated 
that  one  or  two  progressive  thinkers  began  to  use 
them  in  explanation  of  some  words  in  the  Septuagint 
— that  most  valuable  translation  of  the  Old  Testament 
which  was  published  in  Ptolemaic  times  (250-100  B.C.), 

'  These  papyri  are  only  now  being  worthily  edited  and  published. 


8        THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

which  the  apostles  and  most  other  Jews  of  the  first 
century  used  as  Sacred  Scripture. 

The  first  discovery  on  a  large  scale,  after  papyri 
were  seen  to  be  worth  preserving,  took  place  at  the  site 
of  Arsinoe  in  1877,  ^'Ut  these  were  of  a  non-literary 
nature  and  in  a  very  fragmentary  state  and  were  all 
late  in  date,  being  of  the  Byzantine  time,  and  there- 
fore aroused  very  little  interest  until  long  afterward, 
when  those  in  the  possession  of  the  Archduke  Rainer 
of  Vienna  began  to  be  published.  As  it  has  been 
estimated  that  there  are  over  a  million  papyri  in  this 
collection,  it  goes  without  saying  that  many,  even  yet, 
remain  unedited.  In  1892,  on  the  site  of  a  village 
named  Socnopaei  Nesus,  very  near  to  Arsinoe,  an 
extensive  series  of  documents  in  much  better  condition, 
dating  from  the  first  to  the  middle  of  the  third  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  was  discovered,  and  found  by  the 
German  scholars  to  be  full  of  interesting  material,  tho 
no  one  had  yet  caught  the  stupendous  truth  that  these 
were  written  in  the  colloquial  language  of  the  first 
century,  i.e.,  in  Biblical  Greek. 

In  1890,  the  famous  work  of  Aristotle  on  the  Con- 
stitution of  Athens  was  discovered,  and  the  edition  of 
the  text,  when  published  the  following  year  by  Dr.  F.  G. 
Kenyon  of  the  British  Museum,  produced  a  veritable 
sensation.  The  work  had  been  lost  for  at  least  twelve 
hundred  years  and  its  discovery  ranked  "as  the  most 
striking  event  in  the  history  of  classical  literature  for 
perhaps  the  last  three  centuries"  (Kenyon).  It  had 
been  considered  outside  the  bounds  of  possibility  that 
this  much  quoted  work  should  ever  be  recovered  in  its 
original  form.  It  was  written  from  325-322  b.c,  either 
by  Aristotle's  own  hand  or  at  least  by  his  orders  and 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  9 

under  his  own  eye.  From  classical  references  scholars 
had  been  sure  that  it  treated  of  the  history  and  growth 
of  this  most  famous  of  ancient  "Constitutions,"  giving 
also  the  great  philosopher's  comments  on  the  laws  of 
his  own  day  as  compared  with  the  past,  and  one  of 
the  fondest  hopes,  when  Herculaneum  was  excavated, 
was  the  prospect  of  finding  this  work  or  at  least  some 
considerable  fragment  of  it.  But  this  expectation  had 
not  been  fulfilled,  nor  had  the  monasteries  afforded  any 
new  knowledge  of  this,  or  indeed  any  other  of  the 
more  important  works  of  classical  literature — and  then 
suddenly  this  greatest  discovery  of  all  was  made !  The 
text  was  written  on  the  back  of  four  rolls  of  papyrus 
nearly  a  foot  wide  and  extending  to  a  length  of  nearly 
nineteen  feet,  thus  giving  to  scholars  the  work  almost 
complete.  Its  unusual  size  may  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that  its  translation,  as  given  by  Sir  F.  G.  Kenyon  in 
1912,  covers   116  solid  pages. 

This  precious  document  was  written  in  several 
different  hands  upon  the  back  of  papyri  which  had 
been  used  for  recording  the  daily  accounts  of  the  man- 
ager of  a  small  Egyptian  farm  a.d.  78-79.  It  contained 
over  67,  chapters,  practically  complete.  The  first  part 
of  this  noble  work  consists  of  41  chapters  treating' most 
carefully  the  provisions  of  the  original  Constitution  of 
Athens  and  the  changes  through  which  it  had  passed. 
The  second  part  describes  the  constitution  of  Aristotle's 
day  and  its  regulations  concerning  citizenship,  train- 
ing of  the  youth,  functions  of  the  Council  (Bov?it]), 
archons,  military  officers,  law  courts,  etc. 

To  the  surprize  of  classical  scholars  it  was  found 
that  this  ancient  original  document  takes  a  very  dif- 
ferent view  of  the  course  of  Greek  history,   particu- 


lo       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

larly  of  the  legislation  of  Draco  and  Solon,  from  that 
which  modern  critics  had  favored.  In  fact,  the  newly 
discovered  history,  which  is  absolutely  authoritative 
for  the  first  quarter  of  the  fourth  century  b.c.^  differs 
so  radically  from  many  modern  reconstructions  of  that 
period  that,  as  Sir  F.  G.  Kenyon  says,  it  tends  to  make 
us  almost  skeptical  as  to  the  value  of  most  conjec- 
tural restorations  of  historic  facts,  either  in  Greek  or 
in  Hebrew  history.  "So  many  eminently  reasonable 
theories  and  conjectures  are  scattered  to  the  winds  by 
this  slight  addition  to  the  ancient  testimonies  that  con- 
siderable caution  seems  to  be  imposed  for  the  future 
alike  on  the  propounding  and  the  accepting  of  similar 
and  equally  plausible  imaginations."*  The  museums  and 
great  libraries  had  by  this  time  begun  to  realize  in 
some  degree  the  value  of  these  papyrus  documents 
which  they  had  previously  disregarded.  As  early  as 
1839,  the  British  Museum  had  published  a  little  volume 
of  44  papyri,  including  the  Serapeum  records  found 
some  twenty  years  before,  and  in  1891  and  1893  other 
important  volumes  followed. 

An  additional  word  will  perhaps  be  welcomed  con- 
cerning the  unique  temple  records  which  had  so  much 
influence  in  rousing  popular  attention  to  these  strange 
discoveries.  These  documents  were  concerned  with 
the  temple  of  Serapis  at  Memphis  where  two  girls  who 
were  twins,  Thaneas  and  Thaus,  petition  through  a 
friend  named  Ptolemy  for  certain  rights  of  which  they 
had  been  deprived.  Ptolemy  was  a  Macedonian  who 
lived  the  life  of  a  recluse  in  the  temple  where  he  had 
twice  been  violently  assaulted  because  he  w^as  a  Greek 

*  Aristotle  on  the  Athenian  Constitution,  transl.  by  F.  G.  Kenyon,  1912, 
p.  xix, 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  ii 

— which  reminds  us  forcibly  of  the  attack  upon  Tro- 
phimus  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  which  led  ultimately 
to  Paul's  arrest  and  final  martyrdom  (Acts  21 :  29). 

The  girls  had  been  accustomed  to  offer  libations  to 
Isis,  Serapis,  and  Asclepius,  for  which  services  they  were 
paid  regularly  for  six  months,  after  which  the  account 
fell  into  arrears.  When  the  king  and  his  queen  visited 
the  temple  the  twins  presented  a  petition  to  him,  but 
nothing  came  of  it;  and  it  is  suggestive  to  see  how 
many  petitions  were  sent  before  anything  was  paid, 
the  minor  officials  putting  the  matter  off  as  long 
as  possible  and  never,  so  far  as  we  know,  paying  in 
full. 

Another  volume  of  British  Museum  papyri  con- 
tained many  magical  texts  written  in  gibberish,  but 
attempting  to  show  how  one  could  succeed  in  love  or 
hate  and  keep  good  health  and  beauty  under  all  cir- 
cumstances; a  ring,  an  emerald,  and  a  beetle  play  im- 
portant parts  in  this  magic;  and  also  a  boy,  who  by 
looking  into  a  magic  bowl  was,  it  seems,  able  to  fore- 
cast the  future  just  as  well  as  any  modern  Oriental 
fortune  teller.  The  volume  also  contained  spells  by 
which  to  control  the  various  deities  at  favorable  hours 
during  favorable  days,  and  what  would  seem  even 
more  valuable,  prescriptions  for  cleaning  houses  of 
bugs  and  fleas  and  restraining  old  women  from  drunk- 
enness and  garrulity. 

Among  the  public  accounts  was  a  tax  register  of 
the  second  century,  and  among  the  private  documents 
the  day  book  of  a  farm  steward  of  the  first  century 
by  the  name  of  Didymus.  These  farm  records  of  the 
apostolic  age  discuss  weeding,  rush-picking,  irrigation, 
harrowing,  dyke-making,  and  the  free  distribution  of 


12       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

beer  to  laborers.  On  the  back  of  this  document  was 
written  the  large  and  important  work  on  the  Consti- 
tution of  Athens,  which  has  previously  been  described. 
The  "Classical  Texts  from  the  Papyri,"  edited  by  Dr.  F. 
G.  Kenyon  in  1891,  called  especial  attention  to  the  newly 
discovered  poems  of  Herodas  (third  century  B.C.)  and 
to  the  new  light  which  they  threw  upon  our  thought 
of  ancient  times.  Herodas  represented  a  class  of 
poetry  never  seen  before  except  in  small  fragments. 
The  newly  discovered  manuscript,  however,  contained 
seven  poems,  each  one  of  which  threw  a  flashlight  into 
that  long  forgotten  and  far-off  world.  Let  us  try  in 
a  few  brief  phrases  to  epitomize  a  few  of  these. 

1.  The  Matchmaker  or  the   Go-Between. 

This  old  woman,  after  complaining  of  the  mud 
which  "is  nearly  up  to  one's  thighs,"  gives  extravagant 
sympathy  to  her  friend  because  her  husband  had  been 
ten  months  in  Egypt  and  had  never  written  back: — in 
Egypt  the  land  of  wealth  and  wine  and  of  women  who 
rival  in  beauty  the  three  goddesses!  "Cheer  up,"  she 
says  in  substance,  "do  not  moor  your  ship  with  one 
anchor  alone;  consider  the  famous  athlete  Gallos  and 
have  a  good  time  while  your  husband  is  gone!" 

2.  The  Pander. 

This  poem  tells  the  story  of  a  stranger  who  had 
come  to  this  man's  house  and  abused  one  of  his  girls. 
It  is  worse  than  Balzac. 

3.  The  School  Master. 

The  mother  brings  her  boy  and  urges  the  pedagog 
to  flog  him  within  an  inch  of  his  life,  for  he  is  the 
"terror  of  the  home."  "He  associates,"  she  says, 
"only  with  the  lowest  characters  and  he  will  not  study 
at  all.    Everything  he  is  told  to  remember  runs  through 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  13 

him  like  a  sieve.  When  his  teachers  or  parents  scold 
him  he  either  runs  away  or  climbs  on  the  roof  of  a 
house  and  makes  faces  at  them  like  a  monkey  and  ruins 
the  tiles  of  the  roof." 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  add  that  the  school-master  rises 
to  the  occasion  and  uses  the  cowhide.  The  poem  closes 
with  a  series  of  howls  and  promises  to  be  good. 

4.  A  Visit  to  Asclepius. 

This  poem  is  most  remarkable  for  its  description  of 
the  wonderful  art  treasures  in  the  temple.  No  church 
of  to-day  is  as  rich  in  gifts  as  those  ancient  heathen 
sanctuaries. 

5.  A  Jealous  Woman. 

In  this  poem  a  lady  who  is  evidently  in  love  with 
her  slave  sends  him  olT  to  receive  a  thousand  lashes 
on  his  back  and  stomach,  because  in  her  jealousy  she 
thinks  he  has  paid  attention  to  another  woman.  Be- 
fore the  order  can  be  executed,  however,  she  calls  him 
back,  saying  she  has  decided  instead  of  that  to  have 
him  branded  on  the  face  with  a  hot  iron.  The  prob- 
ability is  that  she  forgave  him  before  the  poem  con- 
cluded. 

Such  poems  as  this  open  up  the  social  conditions 
and  the  base  immorality  of  the  second  century  of  our 
era  in  a  rather  startling  way. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  this  one  little  volume  of  British 
Museum  papyri  contained  three  manuscripts  of  classical 
works  hitherto  unknown  and  collations  of  seven  manu- 
scripts of  works  already  exant,  thus  representing  all  such 
papyri  at  that  time  in  the  possession  of  the  British  Mu- 
seum with  the  exception  of  six  previously  published. 
Other  museums  had,  meanwhile,  been  making  some  fine 
purchases,  the  most  important  being  the  acquisition  by 


14      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  Louvre,  in  1892,  of  the  greater  part  of  the  long-lost 
masterpiece  of  Hypereides,  his  oration  against  Athen- 
ogenes;  which,  however,  was  balanced  by  the  British 
Museum's  securing  four  years  later  the  Odes  of  Bac- 
chylides,  a  contemporary  of  Pindar.  Soon,  Berlin  was 
able  to  announce  another  great  discovery.  The  Persae, 
a  poem  of  Timotheus  of  Miletus  (446  B.C.),  which  had 
been  discovered  by  Dr.  A.  Wiedemann  in  1902  at  Abusir 
and  sent  to  the  German  capital.  This  was  found  in  a 
wood  coffin  still  containing  the  corpse,  together  with  a 
pair  of  sandals,  leather  bag,  etc.  It  represented  the  oldest 
book  known,  antedating  the  founding  of  the  library  of 
Alexandria.  But  we  must  return  to  Egypt  and  watch 
some  of  the  leading  explorers  engaged  in  the  practical 
field  work  which  was  giving  these  wondrous  treasures  to 
the  European  libraries. 

Dr.  Edouard  Naville,  that  prince  of  scholars,  exca- 
vating in  1892  under  the  auspices  of  the  Egypt  Ex- 
ploration Fund,  made  a  most  remarkable  discovery 
when  he  recovered  the  carbonized  papyri  of  Thmuis. 
The  reference  which  my  distinguished  friend  makes  to 
this  discovery  in  his  introduction  to  this  volume 
(p.  xviii)  is  entirely  too  modest. 

In  a  ruined  building  at  this  site  he  found  an  entire 
library  of  decayed  rolls,  the  burned  contents  of  which  al- 
most choked  its  chambers.^  Following  his  lead,  Mr.  C. 
C.  Edgar  again  cleared  this  building  in  1906,  tho 
the  papyrus  was  of  the  poorest  quality  and  seemed 
completely  undecipherable  in  its  decayed  and  carbon- 
ized condition,  and  he  obtained  little  more  than  an  in- 
teresting collection  of  clay  seals.^*  Some  other  unofficial 

'^  Egypt  Exploration  Fund,  Archeological  Report,  1892,  pp.  Aff ;  cf.  Ahnas 
el  Medineh,  p.  21. 

^^  Cf.  Annales  du  Service  des  Antiquite,  pp.  154-57. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  15 

digging  between  the  above  dates  yielded  only  other 
bundles  of  seemingly  worthless  documents — but  it  has 
just  been  discovered  that  even  these  burned  papyri  can 
be  read!  Up  to  191 5  only  about  twenty  of  these  docu- 
ments had  ever  been  deciphered;  but  in  that  year  the 
editors  of  the  Greek  papyri,  in  the  John  Rylands  Library, 
Manchester,  succeeded  in  publishing  about  eighty  frag- 
ments of  these  carbonized  papyri  in  such  a  splendid  way 
that  they  can  now  be  easily  translated.  Altho  the  rolls 
were  crusht  by  the  weight  above  them,  yet  the  fragments 
were  gummed  to  cards  in  such  a  careful  manner  that 
one  side  of  each  document  could  be  examined,  tho  the 
writing  on  the  back  was  necessarily  destroyed.  It  Avas 
found  that  these  documents  were  written  by  trained 
scribes  and  treated  of  many  and  diverse  subjects,  tho 
uniformly  official  in  character.  It  was  proved  that  the 
ruined  building  which  Dr.  Naville  discovered  was  a 
government  office  containing  the  registration  files  of 
the  district,  these  files  showing  the  leases  of  govern- 
ment lands,  apportionments  of  surpluses  and  deficits  in 
revenue,  taxes  in  money  and  grain,  together  with  con- 
siderable private  correspondence.  All  of  the  docu- 
ments date  from  the  last  half  of  the  second  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  third  century  and  give  a  picture  of  the 
administration  of  the  district  at  that  era  which  is  very 
valuable. 

Thmuis  was  the  capital  of  one  of  the  nomes  of  the 
Delta,  and  was  a  town  which  reached  the  zenith  of  its 
power  under  Roman  occupation.  The  taxation  ac- 
counts are  as  elaborately  classified  as  in  any  modern 
German  office,  being  arranged  in  well-defined  divisions 
and  indexed  with  headings  and  subheadings.  The 
bookkeeping  is  very  modern  in  its  thoroughness. 


i6       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

A  new  enthusiasm  in  papyri  research  began,  how- 
ever, with  the  finds  of  manuscripts  by  Dr.  W.  M. 
Flinders  Petrie  in  the  cemetery  at  Hawara,  1888- 1890, 
where  he  made  the  spectacular  discovery  of  Ptolemaic 
mummies  whose  faces  were  covered  with  casings  made 
of  papyri  pasted  together.  This  greatest  of  all  mod- 
ern explorers  appreciated  the  richness  of  this  find  and 
invented  new  ways  of  separating  and  restoring  the  old 
fragments,  which  proved  to  be  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant documents  for  the  history  of  Greek  paleography 
ever  found,  including  ancient  wills  and  other  legal  docu- 
ments of  the  third  century  B.C.,  but  especially  several 
papyri  containing  large  fragments  of  the  Phaedo  and 
Laches  of  Plato,  the  lost  Antiope  of  Euripides,  and 
other  classical  works  which  filled  scholars  everywhere 
with  delight. 

Prof.  J.  P.  Mahaffy  (The  Petrie  Papyri)  has  told 
the  fascinating  story  of  how  Professor  Sayce  and 
himself,  during  a  college  vacation  in  1890,  pored  over 
the  seemingly  undecipherable  fragments  of  the  torn 
and  mutilated  papyri  which  Dr.  Petrie  had  sent  them, 
until  finally  the  Phaedo  emerged,  then  the  leaf  of  a 
tragic  poem  and  then  the  names  of  Roman  emperors 
began  to  appear  out  of  these  tattered  and  dirty  scraps 
that  for  over  2,000  years  had  been  hidden  in  the  dust 
heap.  It  was  on  one  of  these  warm  and  happy  days  that 
Professor  Mahafify  guessed  the  meaning  of  the  ab- 
breviation always  mysteriously  appearing  at  the  be- 
ginning of  all  wills: 

"Being  of  sound  mind  and  clear  understanding." 
The  original  finding  of  these  papyri  in  the  mummy 
cases  at  Gurob  (near  the  Fayum)  was  just  as  strange 
and   unexpected    as    any    discovery    could   be.      These 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI 

coffins  and  mummy  cases  were  not  very  attractive. 
The  only  decoration  upon  any  coffin  was  a  carved 
wooden  head  of  marvelous  rudeness,  almost  grotesque, 
the  nose  being  simply  a  long,  triangular  ridge,  while 
the  eyes  were  marked  with  two  scars  in  the  board,  and 
the  mouth  by  another  scar.  Within  these  grossly  rough 
cases  were  comparatively  fine  painted  cartonnages, 
ornamental  coverings,  made  usually  of  pasteboard.  The 
separate  pieces  of  the  cartonnage  were  the  head-piece 
coming  down  with  a  spread  on  the  chest;  the  pectoral 
or  collar  plate,  semicircular ;  the  open  work  on  which 
were  figures  of  the  gods  about  the  breast ;  and  the  foot 
case.  The  earliest  heads  were  tolerably  well  made  of 
folds  of  linen  pasted  together  and  molded  on  a  block. 
Over  the  cloth  was  a  coat  of  stucco  painted  dark  blue, 
and  often  the  face  was  gilt  and  burnished  very  skil- 
fully. In  later  times,  about  the  era  of  Ptolemy  Phila- 
delphus  (284-246  B.C.),  papyrus  was  substituted  for 
cloth,  and  several  layers  of  Demotic  or  Greek  papyri 
were  glued  together,  covered  with  stucco  and  painted, 
and  thus  developed  into  the  massive  plaster  head-pieces 
of  the  Hawara  cemetery.  In  this  stage  they  did  not 
glue  the  papyri  together  but  merely  soaked  them  and 
plastered  them  one  on  the  other,  trusting  to  crossing 
them  and  a  good  coat  of  plaster  and  glue  to  hold  them 
together.  The  papyri  recovered  from  the  glued  cases 
were  mostly  in  a  bad  state,  but  the  cases  made  with 
plain  wetting  were  by  far  the  best  source  of  papyri, 
and  when  a  document  had  been  used  whole,  being 
spread  out  on  the  breast  or  down  the  back,  it  could 
be  taken  out  ''none  the  worse  for  its  burial  for  over 
2,000  years"  (Petrie). 

Among  the  other  works  specially  deserving  of  men- 


i8       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

tion  coming  from  this  site,  was  a  petition  of  a  prisoner 
who  urges  freedom,  "in  the  name  of  God  and  of  fair 
play,"  a  correspondence  of  Kleon  and  Alexander,  in 
which  the  latter  advises  that  repairs  to  a  conduit  be 
paid  for  by  putting  an  extra  tax  on  salt;  a  complaint 
of  Petosiris,  a  tanner,  who  declares  that  Dionysios,  "tho 
not  even  an  official  tax-gatherer,"  had  rushed  into  his 
house  and  carried  off  various  valuables,  including  "two 
pillows,  a  Cyprian  drinking-cup,  and  a  box  of  tools"; 
and  the  personal  narrative  of  a  royal  party  which  had 
marched  to  Ephesus  and  Laodicea,  the  writer  describ- 
ing in  a  most  fascinating  way  how,  when  they  had 
arrived  at  Seleucia,  the  royal  party  had  been  met  and 
entertained  by  the  magistrates,  priests,  citizens,  and 
soldiers,  all  crowned  with  garlands! 

As  the  present  writer  visited  Dr.  Petrie,  both  at 
Hawara  and  Gurob,  at  the  critical  moment  when  this 
initial  and  most  startling  discovery  was  being  made, 
he  may  be  pardoned,  perhaps,  for  having  dwelt  upon  it 
so  long,  especially  as  Messrs.  Grenfell  and  Hunt,  who 
have  won  the  greatest  fame  as  papyri  hunters,  were, 
in  part,  trained  by  Dr.  Petrie  and  it  was  under  his 
direction  that  they  went  to  Oxyrhynchus,  he  himself 
opening  the  site  and  leaving  it  only  because  the  ruins 
were  not  more  ancient.  As  early  as  1894  Mr.  B.  P. 
Grenfell  had  been  in  Egypt  working  with  Dr.  Petrie, 
who  subsequently  obtained  from  a  native  dealer 
a  remarkable  papyrus  roll  over  40  feet  in  length  con- 
taining the  revenue  laws  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus, 
which  he  unrolled  and  handed  to  Dr.  Grenfell  to  edit. 
Mr.  Arthur  S.  Hunt  had  also  been  in  Egypt  during  this 
same  period,  securing  papyri  for  a  great  English 
library.     In  1895  these  two  men,  the  oldest  being  but 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  19 

26  years  of  age,  joined  together  in  excavations  for 
papyri  in  the  Fayuni  and  were  extraordinarily  suc- 
cessful. 

But  it  was  in  1897  that  the  new  era  of  papyri  dis- 
covery began.  When,  in  that  year,  these  two  young 
scholars  started  to  dig  at  Oxyrhynchus  neither  of  them 
could  possibly  have  dreamed  that  the  most  far-reaching 
discovery  in  its  bearing  upon  the  New  Testament 
which  had  ever  been  made  in  Christian  history  was 
about  to  be  accomplished.  Nor,  indeed,  did  they 
imagine  this  even  after  they  had  begun  to  uncover 
from  the  afsch  (rubbish)  of  the  mounds  these  masses 
of  papyri.  They  found  some  of  these  the  first  day  of 
their  digging  at  Behnesa,  and  almost  continuously — day 
after  day,  and  week  after  week — these  ancient  docu- 
ments were  upturned.  How  many  thousands  of  pa- 
pyrus scraps  these  young  men  took  to  England  the 
writer  does  not  know,  but  so  many  that  it  will  yet  be 
a  generation  before  they  can  all  be  thoroughly  exam- 
ined.^'' When  the  store  boxes,  in  which  these  treasures 
were  packed,  came  to  London  from  Oxyrhynchus,  they 
were  so  heavy  that  they  were  weighed  by  the  ton  when 
billed  by  the  freight  agent.  In  1897  these  men  gave 
their  first  official  report,  having  examined  at  Oxford 
the  contents  of  some  1,300  of  these  documents.  This 
first  volume  contained  158  texts,  tho  four-fifths  of  the 
whole  collection  had  not  yet  been  unpacked,  and  the 
best  part  of  what  they  had  obtained  had  been  left  at 
the  Cairo  museum.  Perhaps  no  published  work  in  our 
generation  ever  aroused  more  curious  interest  than 
this,  and  the  volumes  which  followed  fully  sustained 
the  expectation. 

^  See  Journal  of  Egyptian  Archccology,  April,  1914,  pp.  82,  91. 


20       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  Greek  texts  in  Vol.  I  date  from  200  b.c.  to  a.d. 
600.  They  comprise  new  manuscripts  with  new  and 
important  readings  in  a  vast  number  of  the  classics, 
such  as  Homer,  Herodotus,  Xenophon,  Sophocles,  etc., 
a  good  many  new  works  by  authors  formerly  known, 
and  some  quite  important  works  by  authors  previously 
almost  unheard  of.  The  editors  were  able  to  publish 
a  new  ode  by  Pindar,  singing  the  praises  of  the  simple 
life,  and  also  a  poem  by  Sappho,  beautiful  enough  to 
sustain  fully  the  literary  reputation  of  this  remarkable 
woman.  This  first  poem  of  Sappho,  written  in  the 
Aeolic  dialect  and  assigned  to  the  third  century,  com- 
mences with  an  invocation  to  Aphrodite,  and  is  one 
of  the  vain  appeals  from  Sappho  to  her  brother  Cha- 
raxus,  whom  she  had  permanently  estranged  by  her 
bitter  reproaches  because  of  his  devotion  to  Rhodopis, 
a  slave  at  Naucratis,  whom  he  ransomed.  Portion's 
of  twenty  lines  are  preserved,  of  which  we  quote  a  few 
in  translation: 

"And  may  he  have  the  will 
To  me  his  sister  some  regard  to  show, 
To  assuage  the  pain  he  brought,  whose  cruel  blow 
My  soul  did  kill, 

"Yea,  mine,  for  that  ill  nam 
Whose  biting  edge,  to  shun  the  festal  throng 
Compelling,  ceased  awhile;  yet  back  ere  long 
To  goad  us  came." 

We  add  here  a  few  verses  from  a  more  recently 
discovered  love  song  of  this  same  famous  woman, 
which  has  been  put  into  English  verse  by  Joyce 
Kilmer : 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  21 

"Unto  some  a  troop  of  triumphant  horsemen, 
Or  a  radiant  fleet,  or  a  marching  legion, 
Is  the  fairest  sight — but  to  me  the  fairest 
Is  my  beloved. 

"Every  lover  must  understand  my  wisdom, 
For  when  Helen  looked  on  the  whole  world's  beauty 
What  she  chose  as  best  was  a  man,  her  loved  one, 
Who  shamed  Troy's  honor. 

"Then  her  little  child  was  to  her  as  nothing. 
Not  her  mother's  tears  nor  her  father's  pleading 
Moved  her.  At  Love's  word,  meekly  she  surrendered 
Unto  this  stranger." 

Other  treasures  discovered  were  a  new  comedy  by 
Menander,  in  which  he  makes  the  statement  which 
sounds  very  modern:  "No  honest  man  ever  grew  rich 
quickly";  an  interesting  work  resembhng  the  "Al- 
manack" of  our  own  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  which  were 
practical  maxims  like  "Every  thing  grows  old  except 
the  love  of  gain'*;  and  a  new  rhetorical  treatise  whose 
author  asserts  that  he  is  able  to  give  to  every  speaker 
on  every  subject  an  epigram  which  will  just  fit  his  needs. 
This  rhetorician,  altho  most  of  his  work  is  gone,  leaves 
one  injunction  which  might  even  yet  be  remembered 
with  profit  in  some  theological  schools:  "Do  not  be 
stiff  or  artificial  in  your  speaking.  It  is  better  to  show 
hesitancy  [rather  than  fluency],  for  it  gives  a  better 
impression  when  everything  does  not  seem  cut  and 
dried  beforehand." 

It  is  also  interesting  to  find  here  a  legal  decision 
of  the  second  or  early  part  of  the  third  century,  in 
which  the  doctor  lays  claim  for  immunity  for  some  kind 
of  public  service  on  the  ground  of  his  being  a  physician, 
while  the  court  demands  scientific  proof  that  he  is  a 


22      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

physician  hy  having  him  answer  certain  technical  ques- 
tions. 

Another  official  document  (a.d.  173)  is  "from  a 
public  physician"  named  Dionysus,  who  hands  in  his 
coroner's  report  that  Heraclides  came  to  his  death  by 
hanging.  There  are  orders  of  arrests,  denial  of  money 
claims,  complaints  of  robberies  made  to  the  police  court, 
property  returns,  emancipation  papers,  official  tax  lists, 
meat  bills,  nurses'  receipts,  invitations  to  dinner,  and 
everything  else  connected  with  the  life  of  the  ordinary 
citizen  of  that  town  in  the  first,  second,  third  and 
fourth  centuries  of  our  era.  The  invitation  to  dinner 
has  not  been  much  improved  upon  by  modern  society. 
It  reads: 

"Chaeremon  requests  your  company  at  dinner 
At  the  table  of  the  Lord  Serapis  in  the  Serapeum 
To-MORROW,  the  fifteenth,  at  nine  o'clock." 

The  wedding  invitations  are  precisely  as  ours. 

Many  documents  from  the  guilds  of  workmen  and 
trade  unions  were  found.  Corporations,  and  even  indi- 
viduals, were,  about  the  era  of  St.  Paul,  found  engaged 
in  business  plans  which  seem  strikingly  up  to  date. 
For  example,  an  egg-seller  (a.d.  327)  binds  himself 
under  oath  not  to  sell  eggs  privately  at  a  discount,  but 
only  in  the  public  market  at  the  fixt  price.^ 

Many  private  letters  were  published  from  the  or- 
dinary business  men  of  those  early  centuries,  and  some 
from  slaves  and  women  and  even  a  few  from  boys.  It 
was  a  perfect  surprize  to  find  how  freely  the  people 
who  lived  2,000  years  ago  were  accustomed  to  express 

*  This  explanation  of  the  text  seems  to  me  the  most  reasonable,  altho 
such  an  afifidavit  may  have  befen  required  also  because  of  a  possible  attempt 
to  avoid  taxation  or  for  other  reasons. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  27, 

themselves  in  this  way.  Letter  writing  was  not  con- 
fined to  rare  occasions  and  important  subjects,  but 
dealt  with  the  most  trifling  matters  of  every-day  life. 

Perhaps  the  most  famous  letter  published  by  Gren- 
fell  and  Hunt  in  their  first  volume  was  that  of  little 
Theon,  who  some  time  in  the  second  or  third  century 
of  our  era  sent  a  letter  to  his  father,  Theon,  who  had 
gone  off  to  Alexandria  without  taking  him  along.  The 
letter  is  printed  out  in  school-boy  fashion  instead  of 
being  written  in  ordinary  cursive  form,  and  the  spelling 
and  grammar  are  quite  original:  "It  was  a  fine  thing 
of  you  not  to  take  me«  with  you  to  the  city!"  says  the 
little  fellow  immediately  after  his  greeting.  *Tf  you 
won't  take  me  with  you  to  Alexandria  [next  time]  I 
won't  write  you  a  letter  or  speak  to  you  or  say  good-by 
to  you."  Dr.  Deissmann  thinks  this  letter  to  be  very 
impertinent;  but  when  we  remember  the  supreme 
power  which  parents  had  over  children  at  that  time — 
which  must  certainly  have  put  outward  respect,  at  least, 
at  a  premium — I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  in  this 
case  father  and  son  were  chums  and  that  the  boy  knew 
he  could  take  liberties  with  such  a  father  without  fear. 
The  spirit  of  love  and  mirthfulness  crops  out  when  at 
the  close  of  his  letter  he  begs  his  father  to  send  him  a 
lyre  and  adds,  "If  you  don't,  I  won't  eat,  I  won't  drink; 
there  now!" 

The  greatest  treasures  revealed  in  this  first  publi- 
cation of  the  papyri  consisted,  however,  in  some  Biblical 
texts,  dating  to  a  period  at  least  a  hundred  years 
earlier  than  any  other  known  texts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  some  "sayings  of  our  Lord,"  together  with 
some  Christian  letters  and  some  certificates  of  sacrifice 
which  had  evidently  been  required  of  persons  suspected 


24      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  being  Christians.  All  of  these  we  will  consider 
later. 

The  question  must  arise  with  every  one  why  these 
papyri  are  found  only  in  or  near  the  Fayum  in  Egypt, 
and  how  perishable  papyrus,  which  is  merely  the 
ancient  paper,  could  be  preserved  for  all  these  cen- 
turies without  rotting.  As  to  the  latter  point,  the  dry 
climate  of  Egypt  and  the  sand,  which  covers  every 
dead  thing  with  its  protecting  shroud,  must  be  credited 
with  preserving  these  and  many  other  tender  and 
delicate  objects  which  would  certainly  have  perished  in 
any  other  country.  The  writer  has  actually  seen 
flowers  taken  from  the  tomb,  where  they  had  been 
buried  for  3,000  years,  still  retaining  their  color,  and 
in  some  cases  it  almost  seemed  that  they  still  preserved 
a  little  portion  of  their  fragrance.  All  sorts  of  cloth, 
even  the  most  delicate  linens,  could  remain  hidden  in 
the  sand  for  centuries,  or  even  millenniums,  without  in- 
jury; often  looking  as  fresh  when  taken  from  the  tomb 
as  when  first  buried.  Papyrus,  like  paper,  is  very 
easily  preserved  if  it  happens  to  be  buried  in  a  dry 
place;  and  even  when  a  house  is  burned,  if  a  great 
quantity  of  paper  or  papyrus  is  piled  close  together, 
only  the  outer  sheets  are  harmed,  while  the  inner 
sheets  are  perfectly  safe.  And  since  the  ink-makers 
for  the  Pharaohs  seem  to  have  been  more  able  or  more 
honest  than  most  modern  dealers,  such  papyri  can  very 
generally  be  easily  deciphered,  tho  written  two  or  three 
thousand  years  ago,  unless,  indeed,  the  worms  have 
been  attempting  to  digest  the  contents  of  the  library, 
or  the  abbreviations  and  orthography  prove  too  much 
for  us. 

A   few   remarkable   facts   not   usually  known   will 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  25 

show  clearly  why  the  papyri  have  mostly  been  recov- 
ered from  a  few  villages  buried  in  the  sand  along  the 
former  shore  of  Lake  Moeris  in  the  Egyptian  Fayum. 
About  1,000  years  before  the  Trojan  war  a  Pharaoh 
took  advantage  of  a  natural  depression  in  this  part  of 
Egypt  and  by  the  construction  of  several  vast  dams, 
parts  of  which  still  remain,  he  formed  an  artificial 
reservoir  nearly  one-seventh  as  large  as  Lake  Erie, 
if  some  critical  calculations  are  correct,  making  this 
the  basis  of  an  irrigating  project  stupendous  enough 
to  startle  almost  into  incredulity  our  modern  engineers ; 
tho  probably  the  original  purpose  of  these  dams  was  to 
save  the  country  from  inundation  because  of  the  rise 
of  the  Nile.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  for  many  years 
previous  to  the  reign  of  Senwosri  I,  who  first  began 
these  improvements,  the  entire  Fayum  had  been  a  lake 
with  only  one  high  ridge  or  plateau  which  could  be 
inhabited.  Amenemhat  III  and  the  Pharaoh  just  men- 
tioned, by  means  of  these  great  dams  and  powerful 
locks,  succeeded  in  keeping  the  maximum  level  con- 
stantly below  that  of  the  towns  which  were  on  the 
plateau — the  same  plateau  on  which  the  modern  capital 
of  the  district,  Medinet  el  Fayum,  is  now  situated.  He 
also  diverted  the  surplus  water  from  the  Fayum,  thus 
reclaiming  considerably  more  land,  establishing  in  this 
district  won  from  the  lake  a  famous  summer  resort, 
where  he  built  splendid  monuments,  including  the 
famous  Labyrinth,  which  was  really  his  palace,  and  the 
pyramid  of  Hawara,  which  was  his  tomb.  The  won- 
derful colossi  at  Biahmii,  standing  on  the  edge  of  this 
second  plateau  which  he  had  reclaimed,  were  really 
statues  of  the  king  and  his  wife  at  the  landing-stage  of 
the  lake.     The  lake  continued  in   this   condition   even 


26       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

down  to  the  days  of  Herodotus,  altho  by  very  little 
effort  more  surplus  water  might  have  been  kept  out  and 
the  inflow  of  the  Bahr  Yusuf  might  have  been  so  regu- 
lated as  to  reclaim  more  land. 

During  the  two  centuries,  however,  between  the 
visit  of  Elerodotus  (cir.  450  b.c.)  and  the  reign  of 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus  (cir.  260  b.c.)  the  Fayum  again 
became  the  object  of  royal  attention  in  order  to  provide 
settlements  for  Greek  veterans.  New  dykes  and 
canals  were  constructed  and  again  the  lake  shrank  in 
size,  a  large  number  of  new  villages  springing  up 
along  the  new  lake  front. 

Still  later  a  third  plateau  was  put  above  water 
and  the  lake  margin  again  changed,  a  new  line  of  towns 
being  built.  From  the  reign  of  Philadelphus  to  early 
in  the  third  century  of  our  era  the  prosperity  of  the 
Fayum  was  at  its  height,  but  upon  the  decline  of  Egypt 
and  the  destruction  of  the  regular  irrigation  system  this 
prosperity  suddenly  ceased  and  the  desert  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Fayum  as  nowhere  else  in  Egypt,  thus 
making  this  district,  because  of  its  stranded  villages 
buried  in  the  desert,  the  pre-eminent  source  of  all  our 
supplies  of  ancient  papyri.^  In  the  piles  of  rubbish 
(afsch)  which  often  rise  to  a  height  of  20  or  30  feet 
about  these  ancient  towns,  and  in  the  deserted  houses 
themselves,  have  been  found  most  of  the  literary 
wealth  which  has  compelled  the  rewriting  of  much 
ancient  history  and  even  the  rewriting  of  our  Bible 
grammars  and  lexicons.  At  Oxyrhynchus,  which  was 
located  south  of  this  lake  district  on  the  canal  upon 
which  the  Fayum  depended  for  its  entire  water  supply, 
no  documents  were  found  in  the.  ruins  of  houses,  for 

'  See  especially  Fayum  Toivns  and  their  Papyri,  1900. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  27 

every  house  had  completely  disappeared.  All  of  these 
vast  quantities  of  papyrus  scraps  came  from  the  rubbish 
heaps  which  are  so  characteristic  of  every  oriental 
town.  The  desert  sand  was  in  this  case  God's  angel 
sent  to  bury  these  waste  papers  and  preserve  them 
through  the  centuries  as  perfectly  as  if  deposited  in  the 
steel  safe  of  a  modern  bank.^ 

When  we  remember  that  no  autograph  letter  or 
legal  document  of  the  first  century  had  ever  been  seen 
until  these  towns  were  uncovered,  it  may  be  appre- 
ciated with  what  thrilling  excitement  Greek  scholars 
examined  these  fragments  dug  up  at  Oxyrhynchus  and 
the  towns  of  the  Fayum.  Here  were  found  imperial 
edicts  and  tax  collector's  reports  and  legal  documents 
of  all  kinds.  Here  was  a  death  notice  (a.d.  37),  a  re- 
ceipt for  bath  tax  (a.d.  36),  a  tax  on  beer  (a.d.  61), 
and  poll-tax  receipts  from  all  periods.  Here  was  a 
dedication  of  a  banqueting  hall  (a.d.  69-78),  and  an- 
other (a.d.  109),  the  latter  being  the  dining-hall  of 
the  "elders"  (jiqpoPdteqcov)  of  the  Alexandrian  cor- 
poration of  weavers.  Here  were  questions  to  the 
oracles  written  with  pathetic  eagerness  in  the  same  cen- 
tury in  which  the  Christian  teachers  were  interfering 
with  heathen  magic: 

"To  Socnopaeus,  the  Great,  Great  God.    Answer  me. 
Shall  I  remain?    Shall  I  meet  (him)  ?    Answer  me." 

Here  were  many,  many  letters.     In  one  package  of 

'  The  presence  in  these  rubbish  heaps  of  torn  fragments  of  certain 
greatly  prized  documents,  such  as  the  "Holy  Scriptures"  of  the  Hebrews 
and  Christians,  may  possibly  point  to  some  tragedy  of  persecution  (cf. 
2  Kings  10:27;  Ezra  6:  11;  Dan.  2:5).  So  were  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Hebrews  treated  during  the  Maccabean  and  other  persecutions ;  and  noth- 
ing pleases  a  Mohammedan  better  to-day  than  to  be  able  to  "defile"  the 
sacred  book  or  worshiping  place  of  a  Jew  or  Christian. 


28      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

fourteen  all  the  letters  were  wholly  concerned  with  the 
private  affairs  of  one  family,  mostly  written  by  Gemel- 
lus, an  old  soldier  who  had  reached  his  sixty-seventh 
year  and  wrote  one  letter  about  the  time  St.  John 
was  dying  (a.d.  ioo),  in  which  he  gives  directions  con- 
cerning the  hoeing  and  plowing,  complaining  of  his 
nephew  in  no  measured  terms  because  of  his  delay  in 
harvesting.  Ten  years  later,  when  yy  years  old,  he 
writes  in  a  shaking  and  almost  illegible  hand  to  the 
same  relative,  Epagathus,  about  manuring  the  land 
properly,  and  scolds  him  roundly  about  his  mistakes 
in  caring  for  the  land  as  he  had  previously  scolded 
another  young  farmer  for  being  cheated  in  his  pur- 
chase of  a  bundle  of  hay  which  was  below  weight  and 
so  rotten  that  it  was  "no  better  than  dung."  In  al- 
most every  letter  he  writes,  "Do  not  neglect  these  in- 
structions"; he  is  evidently  quite  sure  that  the  modern 
generation  is  quite  incapable  of  farming  as  well  as  the 
young  folk  could  when  he  was  a  boy.^ 

It  makes  a  Bible  student  quiver  to  read  the  report 
of  a  law  suit  (a.d.  49)  in  which  Pesouris  "in  the 
seventh  year  of  our  sovereign  Tiberius  Claudius  Caesar 
picked  up  from  the  gutter  a  boy  foundling,"  or  the 
petition  of  Tryphon  to  the  prefect  in  the  same  year 
when  Pesouris,  after  the  above  foundling  died,  tried 
to  "carry  off  into  slavery"  a  neighbor's  "infant  son." 
Here  are  sales,  mortgages,  registration  of  cattle,  loans, 
contracts  of  apprenticeship,  marriages,  divorces,  eman- 
cipation of  slaves,  and  all  manner  of  legal  documents 
from  this  suddenly  recovered  first  century.  Here  is 
the  horoscope  of  a  person  born  10  p.m.,  Sept.  28,  a.d. 
15;   a   village   scribe    (a.d.    37)    swears   "by   Tiberius 

"  All  the  above  examples  are  taken  from  Fayfim  Tozviis. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  29 

Caesar,  son  of  the  deified  Jupiter,  Liberator  Augustus," 
that  he  does  not  know  of  any  extortion  on  the  part  of 
the  soldiers;  but  a  dozen  years  later  we  have  several 
papyri  concerning  the  extortions  of  tax  collectors, 
bringing  vividly  to  mind  the  feeling  against  Matthe\v 
and  Zacchaeus. 

One  young  reprobate  in  this  same  century  laments 
the  death  of  his  fighting  cock,  saying:  "For  his  sake 
have  I  been  called  great  in  my  life  and  deemed  happy 
.  .  .  I  am  at  a  loss  where  to  go" — and  actually 
threatens  suicide!  One  husband,  Sarapion,  has  a  com- 
plaint lodged  against  him  (a.d.  20-50)  by  his  wife  be- 
cause he  has  squandered  her  dowry,  ill-treated  her,  and 
left  her  in  poverty;  while  another  husband  complains 
that  his  wife  Demetrias  has  left  him  after  stealing 
many  valuables  (a.d.  30-35).  One  man  writes  to  his 
brother  (a.d.  22) : 

"I  am  not  so  much  as  anointing  myself  until  I  hear  from  you. 
.  .  .  Let  me  hear  about  our  baldheaded  friend,  how  his  hair  is 
growing  again  on  the  top.     Be  sure  not  to  forget." 

The  letters  are  about  every  conceivable  subject. 
Horus  (first  century)  writes  concerning  "Lampon,  the 
mouse-catcher,"  and  Indike  writes  to  a  relative  con- 
cerning the  bread  basket  she  has  sent  her,  closing  her 
note  with  remembrances  of  friends,  just  as  St.  Paul  so 
often  closes  his  letters : 

"Salute  my  friend  Theon  and  Nicoblus  and  Dioscurus  and 
Hermocles  who  have  my  best  wishes."  ^* 

"All  the  above  from  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  parts  1  and  2,  1898-99. 


30       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

3.  Dr.   Deissmann's   Epoch-making  Discovery 
Concerning  the  Papyri 

At  first  the  chief  value  of  the  papyri  seemed  to  lie 
in  the  new  light  which  they  threw  upon  the  first  cen- 
tury, and  in  the  multitude  of  ancient  classics  they  had 
revealed,  and  in  the  Christian  fragments  of  the  first 
four  centuries  preserved.  But  in  1895  Air.  Adolf  Deiss- 
mann,  tho  not  a  university  professor  or  even  a  clergy- 
man, but  a  young  candidate  for  the  ministry,  a  privat- 
docent  at  Marburg,  published  a  discovery  which  he  had 
made  in  the  examination  of  the  papyri,  which  is,  without 
doubt,  the  greatest  single  discovery  of  an  interpretative 
principle  ever  made  in  New  Testament  archeology. 

Deissmann  was  the  first  to  recognize  that  these 
papyri  were  written  exactly  in  the  language  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  to  draw  the  conclusive  inference 
that  Biblical  Greek  could  not  any  longer  be  regarded 
as  an  esoteric,  sacred  language,  or  as  a  language  to 
any  considerable  degree  Hebraized  by  its  Jewish 
authors. 

How  it  ought  to  curb  the  pride  of  specialists  to  find 
that  the  original  discovery  which  opened  to  the  world 
the  Egyptian  language,  the  Babylonian  language,  and 
the  New  Testament  language,  was  in  each  case  made, 
not  by  a  world-renowned  expert,  but  by  a  shrewd  young 
man  of  good  sense  and  insight  unbiased  by  the  tram- 
mels of  scholarly  tradition. 

It  was  Deissmann  who  caught  the  revolutionary 
truth  that  the  gospels  were  a  ''people's  book"  written 
in  the  dialect  of  the  middle  classes  in  the  vernacular 
of  the  home  and  the  shop;  written  in  a  style  which  no 
literary  man  of  that  day  would  have  permitted  him- 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  31 

self  to  nsc.  i)ul  \\liich  ditl  a])])eal  to  the  masses.  An 
cxaniinalion  of  the  papyri  written  contemporaneously 
with  the  New  Testament  proved,  according  to  Deiss- 
mann,  that  the  New^  Testament  books,  with  perhaps  the 
exception  of  tw^o  or  three,  were  written  to  working  men 
in  the  tongue  of  the  working  man,  the  Bible  authors 
freely  using  the  colloquialisms  and  even  the  solecisms 
of  the  market-place.  This  was  a  theory  which  at  first 
seemed  too  good  to  be  true.  It  meant  that  Wycliffe 
only  did  for  England  what  Matthew  and  Mark  did  for 
the  Roman  world.  Christianity  from  its  beginning 
spoke  the  tongue  of  the  peasant.  Its  crooked  grammar 
and  mixed  orthography  and  peculiar  syntax,  upon 
which  have  been  built  so  many  theological  castles  in 
the  air,  are  all  found  paralleled  exactly  in  the  letters 
and  other  familiar  documents  of  that  first  century. 
This  common  Greek  (the  xoivrj)  was  spoken  every- 
where throughout  the  entire  Roman  empire,  and  even 
our  early  church  titles,  such  as  "bishop,"  "presbyter,"! 
"deacon,"  etc.,  were  well-known  official  names  used  in| 
the  trade  unions  and  other  corporations,  religious  and 
civil,  of  that  era.  This  contention,  which  seemed  at 
first  utterly  unbelievable,  has  now  inside  of  twenty 
years  gained  the  adhesion  of  almost  every  great  living 
Greek  scholar  and  has  caused  the  re-writing  of  the 
Kew  Testament  lexicon  and  grammar. 

Deissmann's  first  work  vv^as  his  Bibelstudien 
(1895),  followed  by  his  A^ciic  Bibelstudien  (1897), 
both  translated  into  English  in  1901.  Dr.  Deissmann 
— tho  to  be  sure  he  was  not  a  "Doctor"  then — in  his 
first  volume  divided  the  subject  into  two  parts.  In  the 
first  part  he  gave  a  "Prolegomena  to  the  Biblical  Let- 
ters and  Epistles."     He  showed  first  that  Paul's  writ- 


32       THE  NRW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ings  ought  not  to  be  called  epistles,  but  letters.  An 
epistle  is  literature  written  for  a  literary  purpose,  but 
a  letter  is  personal  and,  however  carefully  written, 
exposes  the  private  feelings  and  lays  bare  the  heart- 
beats as  no  merely  literary  production  could  do.  He 
translated  a  large  number  of  the  new  papyri,  espe- 
cially the  letters,  and  showed  that  the  New  Testament 
collection  as  a  whole,  and  especially  the  publication  of 
the  letters  of  Paul  in  one  package  or  volume,  was  in- 
directly influenced  by  the  custom  in  ancient  times  of 
making  just  such  collections  of  letters.  He  showed 
by  a  multitude  of  examples  that  the  style  of  Paul's 
letters  exactly  agreed  with  the  style  of  the. letters  just 
recovered  from  the  first  century,  and  pointed  out  that 
the  contents  of  Paul's  writings,  especially  their  con- 
tradictions or  unexplained  suggestions,  would  be 
utterly  impossible  in  a  worked-out  treatise,  but  were 
exactly  what  must  be  expected  in  any  real  letter. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  book  he  makes  his  con- 
tribution to  the  language  of  the  Greek  Bible.  He 
shows  that  the  Septuagint,  which  was  "translation- 
Greek,"  was  more  stately,  but  also  more  clumsy  than 
the  vernacular  represented  by  the  New  Testament  and 
the  papyri.  Most  of  the  alleged  Hebraisms  of  the 
Septuagint  were  probably  merely  popular  Greek  ex- 
pressions common  to  the  vernacular.  The  real  lan- 
guage of  the  Septuagint  was  the  spoken  Greek  lan- 
guage in  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies.  This,  according 
to  Deissmann,  explains  many  of  the  supposed  errors  of 
the  Hebrew  text  as  revealed  by  its  Greek  translation. 
Often  when  it  has  been  inferred  by  modern  critics  that 
the  Septuagint  translators  had  before  them  a  text 
different  from  our  own,  it  is  now  seen  that  they  were 


Dr.  Edouard  Naville 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  33 

simply  striving-  to  make  the  ordinary  Hebrew  text  in- 
telligible to  the  Greek-speaking  Egyptians.  They  often 
substituted  a  colloquial  word  for  a  literary  term  instead 
of  making  a  direct  translation,  and  the  actual  mean- 
ing of  the  substituted  word  can  only  now  be  known 
since  the  Egyptian  sources  have  been  so  strangely 
opened  to  us. 

When  we  come  to  the  New  Testament  we  find  that 
its  quotations  from  the  Septuagint  "stand  out  merely 
by  the  sound."  "The  Hellenistic  Jews  spoke  Greek, 
prayed  in  Greek,  sang  psalms  in  Greek,  wrote  in  Greek, 
and  produced  Greek  literature;  further,  their  best 
minds  thought  in  Greek."  Purely  verbal  comparison 
of  terms  is  always  dangerous ;  for  religious  terms  espe- 
cially are  always  altering  and  getting  a  richer  or  a 
poorer  content  with  each  generation.  Therefore,  an 
exact  quotation  may  express  a  dififerent  meaning  at 
different  eras,  as  shown,  for  example,  by  the  word 
"spirit"  as  used  by  Paul,  Augustine,  and  Luther.  So 
"angels,"  "God,"  "faith,"  "flesh,"  "hell,"  "judgment," 
"sacrifice"  "righteousness,"  "love,"  etc.,  might  not 
change  in  form,  but  might  change  considerably  in  cur- 
rent usage  and  meaning  between  the  era  when  the 
Septuagint  was  written  and  that  of  the  Christian 
fathers. 

For  the  first  time  contemporary  documents,  written 
in  the  language  of  the  early  Christian  authors  and  at 
the  same  era,  are  in  our  hands;  and  just  as  we  must 
set  the  printed  Septuagint  side  by  side  with  the  Ptole- 
maic papyri  in  order  to  get  the  exact  meanings  of  the 
words  used,  so  we  must  read  the  New  Testament  in  the 
light  of  the  contemporaneous  inscriptions  and  other 
documents.     Deissmann  also  pointed  out   that  as  the 


34      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

papyri  had  given  a  new  linguistic  meaning  to  the  New 
Testament  Greek,  so  the  inscriptions  in  Asia  Minor, 
Syria,  and  Egypt  had  thrown  new  hght  on  the  times, 
while  both  papyri  and  inscriptions  had  given  a  new  view 
of  the  theology  of  the  early  Christian  centuries  and  of 
the  spirit  of  the  primitive  Church  and  its  thought  of  the 
Bible.  The  conclusion  was  that  a  practical  exegesis 
of  the  New  Testament  was  necessary,  since  the  New 
Testament  writings  were  not  theological  treatises  but 
were  mostly  composed  in  the  non-technical  and  rather 
careless  language  of  the  street  and  the  home.  He  also 
called  attention  to  the  curious  fact  that  many  of  the 
titles  ascribed  to  Jesus,  such  as  Saviour  (acoxife)  and 
Son  of  God  (mog  Szov)  were  to  be  found  on  votive 
inscriptions  dedicated  to  heathen  gods  or  to  the  em- 
perors. Indeed,  it  was  evident  that  St.  Paul  had 
selected  his  honorable  adjectives  describing  Jesus  with 
special  reference  to  the  titles  of  deity  given  in  that 
first  century  to  the  Roman  emperors,  forcing  the  de- 
cisive issue  that  it  was  not  the  imperial  Caesar  but  the 
imperial  Christ  who  was  to  receive  honor  as  God. 

Deissmann     catalogued     sixty-seven     words     from 
the    New    Testament    and    Septuagint    upon    which 
the    papyri    threw    new    light.       The    word    brother 
(dSeXqpog)  ascribed  to  a  member  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity was  exactly  the  term  used  for  the  members  of 
,  the  Serapeum  of  Memphis  and  other  religious  associa- 
'  tions    of    the    first    century.       The    term    "writing" 
(YQOcqpT])  used  for  the  Old  Testament  was  the  common 
-  legal  term  for  a  royal  decree  which  could  not  be  altered. 
The  word  "propitiation"  could  not  be  used  for  a  person 
or  propitiatory  sacrifice,  but  in  the  sense  of  "propitia- 
tory gift" ;  thus  Christ  is  set  forth  in  view  of  the  cos- 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  35 

mos  as  the  "votive  gift  of  the  divine  love  for  the  salva- 
tion of  men."  The  strange  word  (A-oyia)  used  in  i  Cor. 
16:  I,  2  was  now  found  for  the  first  time  outside  of 
the  Bible  in  connection  with  the  "collection"  or  "tax" 
which  the  labor  guilds  or  the  government  had  a  right 
to  make.  The  word  "little"  or  "less"  6  [aixqo^  (Mark 
15:40)  refers  in  the  papyri  invariably  to  age,  not 
stature,  so  that  the  question  of  Jesus  means  "Can  one 
add  anything  to  the  length  of  his  life?" 

So  the  title  "friend"  (cpi?iog),  given  by  Jesus  to  the 
disciples  and  found  so  often  in  the  Bible,  was  a  title 
of  honor  given  at  the  court  of  the  Ptolemies  to  the 
highest  royal  officials — a  title  correctly  translated 
"prince"  by  the  Septuagint   (Esther  2:  18). 

Many  of  the  terms  used  by  St.  Paul  describing  the 
atonement  were  found  to  be  leg^al  terms  used  in  multi- 
tudes  of  the  papyri;  so  the  particles  and  prepositions  1 
upon  which  theologians  had  relied  chiefly  in  making 
many  of  their  minute  distinctions,  were  not  used  in 
this  critical  sense  in  the  papyri.  Several  very  striking 
new  interpretations  of  well-known  Bible  phrases  were 
made  possible  by  this  study  of  the  papyri.  For  ex- 
ample, the  phrase  "in  the  name"  of  Christ  (eig  to 
bvo\ia)  received  unexpected  illumination  from  the  many 
inscriptions  in  which  slaves  are  mentioned  as  being 
bought  by  the  temple  "into  the  name"  of  a  certain 
deity,  meaning  that  the  slave  mentioned  now  belongs 
to  God ;  so  that  baptism  "into  the  name"  or  belief  "into 
the  name"  meant,  according  to  an  ancient  and  well- 
known  sacred  formula,  that  he  was  thus  officially 
marked  as  belonging  to  God. 

Altho  Deissmann's  revolutionary  view,  that  the  New 
Testament  was  written  in  the  common  vernacular  of 


36      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  first  century  as  contrasted  with  the  hterary  lan- 
guage, was  at  once  opposed  by  the  greatest  Greek 
authority,  Friedrich  Blass  (Grammatik  des  neutesta- 
mentlichcn  G^'icchiscli,  1896),  yet  it  immediately 
gained  respect,  and  after  the  publication  of  his  Neue 
Bibelstudien  (1897)  it  was  almost  universally  received 
with  favor,  and  even  Blass  soon  abandoned  his  opposi- 
tion. In  his  new  book  Deissmann  gave  multitudes  of 
instances  from  the  papyri  to  prove  that  a  consistent 
New  Testament  orthography  ought  not  to  be  demanded 
since  variations  in  spelling  were  as  common  in  the 
papyri  as  in  the  New  Testament.  He  showed  more 
fully  also  that  the  so-called  ''Hebraisms"  of  the  Bible 
could,  in  almost  every  instance,  be  paralleled  in  the 
secular  non-Jewish  papyri,  e.g.,  "name"  (ovo|ia)  oc- 
curring with  the  meaning  of  "person";  "Lord's  Day" 
finding  its  exact  parallel  in  "Emperor's  Day";  "place 
of  prayer"  (nQOOEV/r])  being  used  for  heathen  assem- 
blies, etc.,  etc.  Those  who  had  tried  to  correct  the 
New  Testament  text  in  order  to  make  each  passage 
conform  with  every  other,  supposing  that  the  text  had 
been  mutilated  in  transmission,  were  shown  to  have 
made  their  argument  on  a  false  basis.  Even  edv  was 
used  for  dv  in  the  papyri  as  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
815  and  8V  were  constantly  interchangeable.  "Presby- 
ter" was  an  official  title  of  pagan  priests  in  Egypt,  and 
so  also  w^as  the  term  "prophet."  To  be  "sealed" 
(aqpQayi^co)  (Rom.  15:28),  meant  in  the  papyri  to  be 
imperially  protected  and  retained  for  the  imperial  use. 

Seals  were  set  on  sacks  of  grain  to  guarantee  the 
correctness  of  the  contents  and  there  was  a  mark 
(XotQocYM'Oi),  containing  the  Emperor's  name  and  the 
year   of  his   reign,   which   was   necessary  upon   docu- 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  37 

ments  relating  to  buying  and  selling,  and  this  mark  was 
technically  known  as  the  "seal"  (comp.  Rev.  13:  16,  17; 
14:9,  11;  19:20,  etc.).  It  was  the  credential  of  the 
royal  document  making  it  legal.  If  the  *'beast"  (Rev. 
13)  refers  to  the  Roman  emperor,  as  most  scholars 
acknowledge,  then  we  can  now  in  these  ancient  docu- 
ments look  at  the  very  technical  sign  referred  to  by 
St.  John,  as  in  his  vision  he  sees  the  imperial  stamp 
imprest  on  the  forehead  or  hand.  This  also  gives  to 
the  "number"  of  the  beast  a  new  and  vivid  meaning. 
It  would  not  have  been  imusual  for  an  apostle  thus  to 
use  a  local  technical  symbol,  for  the  papyri  prove  that 
many  of  the  well-known  phrases  of  Scripture  are  quo- 
tations of  popular  formulae;  indeed,  St.  Paul  (Gal. 
3:  10)  makes  an  intentional  change  in  a  quotation  from 
Deut.  27:  26,  in.  order  to  adapt  it  to  a  well-known  legal 
phrase,  and  this  was  not  an  unusual  custom. 

Many  previously  rare  words  having  doubtful  mean- 
ings were  clearly  explained;  e.g.,  the  word  translated 
"spiritual"  milk  (i  Pet.  2:2)  was  found  in  the  papyri 
with  the  meaning  "unadulterated,"  and  the  word  trans- 
lated "the  proving"  or  "proof"  of  your  faith  (James 
1:3;  I  Pet.  1:7)  was  seen  to  have  the  meaning 
"proved,"  "standard,"  "genuine" ;  so  that  James  i :  3 
means  that  true  "proved"  faith  worketh  patience,  and 
I  Pet.  1 :  7  should  read  "what  is  genuine  in  your  faith 
may  be  found  more  precious  than  gold" — proved  gen- 
uine by  fire,  unto  praise  and  glory  and  honor  at  the 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  many  strange  and  beautiful 
suggestions  illuminating  the  meaning  of  the  Bible 
phrases  which  Dr.  Dcissmann  discovered  from  the 
common  contemporaneous  usage  of  these  words  at  the 


38       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

time  when  the  New  Testament  was  being  written.  So, 
carrying  this  comparison  further,  we  find  that  Paurs 
famous  companion  Bar-nabas  had  a  name  originally 
meaning  "Son  of  Nebo,"  so  that  the  name  was  changed 
in  its  ending  probably  to  remove  its  pagan  appearance, 
just  as  Nebo  was  changed  to  Nego  (Dan.  2:49);  ^o 
Manaen  (Acts  13:  i)  is  now  seen  not  to  have  been 
necessarily  the  "foster  brother"  of  "Herod,"  but  per- 
haps rather  "companion"  or  playmate,  i.e.,  intimate 
friend.^^  When  Paul  says  he  bears  branded  on  his 
body  the  "stigmata"  of  the  Lord  Jesus  (Gal.  6:  17),  he 
refers  to  a  common  practise  of  branding  the  servants  of 
a  temple  with  the  sacred  sign  which  put  them  under 
the  god's  protection;  and  when  he  speaks  of  the  "large 
characters"  in  which  he  writes  to  the  church  which  he 
had  so  roundly  criticized  (Gal.  6:  11),  this  may  be 
"amiable  irony"  or  perhaps  may  be  a  distinct  act  of 
respect,  since  in  writing  to  distinguished  persons  it  is 
now  seen  that  the  chirography  was  expected  to  be 
larger  than  in  ordinary  writing.^^ 

This  large  synopsis  of  these  two  books  of  Dr.  Deiss- 
mann's  has  been  given  because  of  their  epoch-making 
importance.  It  was  a  stroke  of  genius  rarely  surpassed 
when  this  yotmg  scholar  reached  this  original  conclu- 
sion so  vastly  important,  bringing  as  it  were  a  new 
autographic  commentary  upon  the  Bible  out  from  the 
very  generation  in  which  the  apostles  lived,  and  by  one 
noble  effort   interpreting  results   in   such   a  way   that 

"  Sir  William  Ramsay,  however,  objects  to  applying  the  secondary  and 
official  meaning  of  this  term  to  Manaen,  since  "foster-brothers,"  in  the 
ordinary  sense,  are  often  spoken  of  in  the  inscriptions. 

"  Dr.  Deissmann  in  his  St.  Paul,  1912,  p.  50,  takes  the  position  that  he 
wrote  in  large  script  because  he  was  awkward  and  clumsy  with  the  pen, 
but  I  prefer  the  explanation  given  above,  which,  tho  not  affirmed,  was 
suggested  by  Dr.  Deissmann's  remarks  in  his  earlier  work. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  39 

those  who  have  followed  him  have  done  little  more 
than  supplement  his  results,  notwithstanding  the 
enormous  increase  in  the  material  now  at  the  disposal 
of  Greek  scholars. 

4.  Most  Recent  Discovery  and  Publication  of 
New  Material 

Dr.  Deissmann  was  limited  in  his  Greek  text  almost 
wholly  to  the  volumes  of  the  Oxyrhynchus  papyri 
which  we  have  already  described.  But,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  publication  of  those  initial  volumes  by  Gren- 
fell  and  Hunt  hurried  on  the  scholars  of  all  lands  to 
seek  for  new  treasures  out  of  the  rubbish  heaps  and 
to  search  diligently  the  museums  for  manuscripts  hith- 
erto neglected.  Good  work  began  in  Egypt  under  the 
auspices  of  all  the  great  European  nations,  and  soon 
five  collections  began  to  be  published  of  newly  found 
papyri;  but  none  of  the  new  workers  could  equal  in 
success  the  original  explorers  who  continued  their  work 
at  Oxyrhynchus  during  1903  and  1906-7.  Just  as  the 
century  opened  (1899- 1900)  Grenfell  and  Hunt  had 
made  a  most  amazing  "find"  at  Umm  el-Baragat,  the 
ancient  Tebtunis,  situated  in  the  south  of  the  Fayum. 
They  had  been  digging  here  for  papyri,  but  for  many 
weeks  could  find  nothing  but  crocodiles.  Crocodiles  are 
no  good  substitute  for  papyri.  When  Dr.  Petrie  a  few 
years  before  had  found  a  cemetery  of  sacred  crocodiles 
near  Hawara,  there  had  been  some  curiosity  and  pleas- 
ure in  such  a  novel  discovery;  but  one  such  cemetery 
is  surely  enough,  and  the  diggers  at  Tebtunis  were 
thoroughly  disgusted  when  day  after  day  crocodiles 
and  nothing  but  crocodiles  appeared.  Finally  one 
workman  was  so  overcome  with  stupid  anger  at  his  dis- 


40       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

appointment  in  finding  a  baby  crocodile  in  a  tomb 
which  he  had  hoped  might  contain  a  princess  robed  in 
jewels,  that  he  flung-  the  mummy  of  this  crocodile  upon 
a  rock  and  broke  it  to  pieces — and  then  the  discovery 
was  made ! 

The  crocodile  was  stufifed  with  papyri!  It' may  be 
imagined  how  rapidly  the  value  of  these  formerly  de- 
spised creatures  increased.  There  was  a  rush  for  the 
other  bodies  which  had  been  thrown  upon  the  rubbish 
pile  and  it  was  found  that  a  very  large  proportion  of 
these  contained  deposits  of  the  most  remarkable  char- 
acter. Some,  to  be  sure,  were  stuffed  with  reeds  or 
sticks  and  merely  covered  with  layers  of  cloth  arranged 
in  the  check  pattern  recently  made  so  familiar  in  open- 
ing the  sacred  Ibis  cemetery  at  Abydos;  but  others 
had  rolls  of  papyrus  stuffed  in  their  mouths,  and  others 
still  were  wrapt  in  layer  after  layer  of  this  most 
precious  material.  If  they  had  been  laid  to  rest  clothed 
in  garments  more  glorious  than  those  of  Solomon, 
these  sacred  animals  could  not  have  aroused  more 
devout  admiration  on  the  day  of  their  resurrection 
than  they  did  w^hen  these  young  explorers  found  liter- 
ary fragments  of  ancient  classics,  perfectly  preserved, 
royal  ordinances,  petitions,  land  surveys,  contracts  and 
accounts,  and  private  letters  which  had  formed  the 
strange  shroud  of  these  deities  when  they  were  rever- 
ently laid  to  rest  2,000  years  ago. 

It  took  immense  labor  to  edit  these  papyri,  and 
much  material  gathered  by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  during 
the  opening  years  of  the  country  w^as  not  edited  till 
long  afterward;  but  these  young  Oxford  scholars  soon 
proved  themselves  as  careful  editors  as  they  were 
brilliant    excavators.       In     1900    they    published    the 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  41 

Amherst  Papyri,  to  which  we  will  often  refer  in  the 
future,  containing,  as5  it  does,  many  Biblical  and  some 
very  rare  apocryphal  texts,  perhaps  the  most  important 
specimen  of  the  latter  being  a  large  fragment  of  the 
Greek  recension  of  the  long  lost  Testament  of  Hese- 
kiah,  an  early  Christian  work  originating  near  the 
close  of  the  first  century  and  giving  us  most  valuable 
insight  into  the  worldliness  and  selfishness  of  many  of 
the  chief  ecclesiastics  at  that  time,  as  well  as  of  the 
growing  heresies  in  the  Church,  just  as  2  Peter  and  2 
Timothy  describe  them.  Two  other  non-Biblical  texts 
in  which  Bible  students  have  a  direct  interest,  and  which 
may  be  mentioned  here,  are  seven  papyrus  leaves  pre- 
served from  a  sixth  century  "The  Shepherd  of  Hermas," 
and  an  account  of  the  correspondence  between  Christ 
and  Abgar,  king  of  Edessa.  Down  to  1856  the  "Shep- 
herd," influential  as  it  was  in  early  Christianity,  had 
been  known  only  through  translations,  but  Tischendorf 
discovered  about  one-fourth  of  this  work  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Codex  Sinaiticus,  and  in  1888  Professor 
Lambros  found  twelve  leaves  more.  "The  Shepherd  of 
Hernias"  was  written  in  the  second  century  and 
vividly  shows  the  life  and  thought  of  the  Christians  in 
Rome  at  that  obscure  period  (a.d.  i  10-140).  It  was  the 
earliest  Pilgrim's  Progress,  and  had  an  enormous 
vogue.  It  shows  the  "Holy  Church"  under  the  simili- 
tude of  a  noble  building  in  process  of  erection,  and 
pictures  the  great  tribulation  near  at  hand  as  a  de- 
vouring beast.  It  is  a  call  to  repentance  and  righteous- 
ness, and  makes  perfectly  plain  the  duty  of  the  Chris- 
tian "shepherd"  to  preach  his  message  faithfully.  It 
emphasizes  Christian  experience  as  strongly  as  any 
Methodist  exhorter,  and  declares  in  the  name  of  the 


42       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Lord  that  the  highest  and  most  spiritual  ideal  of  Chris- 
tianity is  practicable  to  one  who  ''keeps  the  Lord  in  his 
heart."  Holiness  is  the  command  of  the  holy  God 
who  could  not  command  what  man  could  not  obey: 

"Believe,  therefore,  in  Him,  and  fearing  Him  have  self-mastery. 
For  the  fear  of  the  Lord  dwelleth  in  the  good  desire."' 

"The  Epistles  to  Abgar"  were  written  about  a.d. 
200,  and  while  they  were  plainly  apocryphal,  yet  it 
caused  deep  satisfaction  to  get  an  ancient  copy  of  this 
influential  Syriac  document.  Eusebius  gives  this  corre- 
spondence between  Christ  and  Abgar  (Hist.  Eccles. 
1 :  13),  and  as  early  as  the  fifth  century  the  portrait  of 
Christ  is  mentioned,  which,  according  to  the  legend,  our 
Lord  presented  to  the  king  at  his  request.  The  latter 
was  once  supposed  to  be  incredible,  as  no  portraits  were 
known  coming  from  that  era;  but  the  discovery  in  the 
\.'  Fayum  that  oil  paintings  were  very  common,  even  in 
middle-class  houses  of  the  second  century  after  Christ 
relieves  the  legend  of  positive  absurdity;  tho  of  course 
it  in  no  degree  establishes  its  truth.  We  must  be  con- 
tent not  to  know  how  Jesus  looked.  His  portrait  almost 
certainly  was  never  painted.  The  orthodox  Jews  of  the 
first  century  had  a  religious  objection  to  pictures;  so 
its  natural  origin  is  as  unlikely  as  its  supposed  super- 
natural origin  is  unbelievable.  Yet  what  a  mistake  it 
was  that  no  one  of  the  artists  of  Pilate's  court  was  will- 
ing to  take  a  few  minutes  from  his  frivolous  and  paltry 
engagements  to  paint  the  face  of  the  youthful  claimant 
to  David's  throne  and  thus  seize  his  one  chance  to 
make  his  name  immortal.^"" 

In     1903    Grenfell    and    Hunt    published    another 

'""  For  ancient  portraits  see  Revue  Archeologique,  V.  Ser.,  Tom.  I.,  1. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  43 

volume  of  Oxyrhynchus  texts,  and  in  1906  The  Hibeh 
Papyri,  which  they  had  obtained  in  1902  from  the 
Ptolemaic  Necropolis  at  el  Hibeh  or  bought  from  the 
natives  there.  The  latter  were  obtained  from  mummy 
cartonnages  and  were  all  of  the  third  century  B.C. 
Among  the  new  classical  fragments  was  a  gnomic 
poem  by  Epicharmus  (b.  540  B.C.),  in  which  he  gives 
a  collection  of  epigrammatic  maxims  to  use  on  any 
occasion  or  in  any  assembly,  humorously  describing 
the  rascal,  gentleman,  bully,  drunkard,  and  politician; 
also  scraps  of  Sophocles  and  Euripides,  including  the 
maxim:  "Evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners" 
(Gk.  "good  character"),  quoted  by  St.  Paul  (i  Cor. 
^5'  33  )>  which  was  here  shown  probably  to  have  come 
"^originally  from  Euripides  instead  of  Menander;  and  a 
discourse  on  music  by  Hippeas,  ridiculing  a  man  who 
pretended  to  be  a  musical  critic  tho  he  had  no  musical 
ear  or  voice  and  tho  his  musical  skill  consisted  only  in 
"doing  everything  worse  than  any  one  else!" 

Here  was  also  a  work  discussing  the  atomic  theory 
of  Democritus,  and  a  book  of  practical  philosophy  which 
sagely  declared  that  "some  men  are  frugal  because 
they  dislike  to  spend  more  than  to  save."  Here  also 
were  packets  of  legal  documents  and  royal  ordinances 
and — infinitely  more  important  than  either — a  fine 
edition  of  Homer's  Iliad  containing  a  list  of  various 
and  new  readings.  Perhaps  most  interesting,  if  not 
most  important,  was  a  bundle  of  ancient  letters  which 
had  been  cast  into  the  waste-basket  and  thus  preserved. 
In  this  private  and  semi-official  correspondence  we  find 
references  to  "the  horse  doctor's  tax,"  a  strike  on  the 
part  of  workmen  employed  in  a  stone  quarry  who  were 
therefore  to  be  arrested,  and  many  references  to  the 


44       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

government  monopoly  on  oil,  the  weaving  industry,  etc. 
Because  of  a  monopoly  on  food  products  it  appears  that 
the  price  of  grain  had  been  recently  considerably 
raised.  It  was  proved  quite  clearly  by  these  discoveries 
that  the  postal  registration  of  that  period  was  very 
thoroughly  worked  out  since  "the  day  book  in  the 
registered  letter  department  of  a  modern  post  office 
can  hardly  be  more  methodical  and  precise." 

But  meanwhile  the  British  Museum  had  been  ac- 
cumulating vast  quantities  of  Greek  papyri.  The  earlier 
volumes  published  by  the  Museum  have  already  been 
mentioned;  but  in  1898,  1907,  and  1910,  other  volumes 
of  much  greater  intrinsic  value,  tho  not  perhaps  contain- 
ing so  much  novel  material,  were  published.  Many  of 
these  texts  will  be  used  later  in  this  work,  but  we  may 
now  mention  a  few  curious  things  brought  to  light 
here.  Does  it  not,  for  example,  throw  light  on  the 
early  Christian  era  to  find  Eulogius  writing  to  the 
Roman  prefect,  Abinnseus,  asking  him  to  use  his  in- 
fluence in  Rome  to  procure  him  the  position  of  tax 
collector  ?  and  to  find  a  servant  in  Alexandria  complain- 
ing to  his  master,  Athenodorus,  that  he  has  been  left 
without  either  work  or  food  for  two  days?  The  latter 
note  was  written  in  such  haste  that  it  was  folded  be- 
fore the  ink  was  dry.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  that 
these  collections  contain  several  petitions  in  which  the 
name  of  the  reigning  Emperor  is  misspelled.  It  gives 
one  a  strange  sensation  to  see  on  the  back  of  one  of 
these  petitions  the  red  official  stamp  of  the  government 
officer  who  first  received  it.  In  another  official  paper 
the  temple  at  Heraclea  leases  a  mill  at  a  voluntary  rent 
for  five  years,  after  which  period  the  rent  is  to  be 
120  drachmae  annually,  a  certain  amount  of  produce 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  45 

being  added.  The  method  of  signature  shows  that  these 
heathen  priests  were  quite  ilhterate,  tho  any  l)road 
inferences  from  this  fact  must  be  drawn  with  caution, 
since  in  a  number  of  the  Christian  documents  here- 
after to  be  mentioned,  and  especially  in  those  recently 
discovered  at  Syene,  the  Christian  officials  show  an 
equal  illiteracy. 

The  extraordinary  value  of  the  texts  found  in  the 
volume  published  by  the  British  Museum  in  1898  may 
be  seen  from  the  fact  that  it  contained  over  200  docu- 
ments dating  from  the  apostolic  age  (10  b.c. — a.d.  75). 
It  is  almost  startling  to  notice  that  in  the  Christian 
texts  coming  from  the  early  centuries  abbreviations  are 
just  as  common  as  in  secular  writings,  and  especially 
for  such  names  as  God,  Christ,  Church,  salvation,  and 
other  sacred  names  which  were  held  in  reverence.  In 
the  volume  referred  to  we  dare  mention  among  the 
more  curious  things  only  a  fragment  of  a  medical 
treatise  which  seems  to  relate  especially  to  the  opera- 
tions of  dentistry,  and  a  few  of  the  financial  papers. 

It  is  enough  almost  to  take  away  one's  breath  to 
read  the  specifications  connected  with  the  contracts  of 
the  first  and  the  second  century  made  through  the 
bank  of  Didymus  which  was  located  on  the  street 
Phrcuici,  which  was  evidently  the  Wall  Street  of 
Arsinoe  at  this  era.  One  per  cent,  a  month  for  quick 
loans  was  not  at  all  unusual,  some  notes  even  running 
at  18  per  cent,  and  22  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  even  at 
higher  rates  of  interest.  Many  papyri  mention,  in  very 
modern  phraseology,  burglars,  kidnappers,  and  thieves. 
One  receipt  is  for  fourteen  drachmae  which  Thaeses 
paid  as  "earnest  money"  for  a  part  of  a  house.  This 
was  in  the  year  a.d.  t66,  and  as  the  purchaser  bought 


46       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

only  one  forty-second  part  of  the  house  it  seems  at  first 
sight  as  if  flats  were  no  new  thing  under  the  sun;  but, 
as  we  will  see  later,  this  would  be  an  incorrect  inference. 
Many  events  are  recorded  at  special  dates  running  from 
Nov.  20,  A.D.  II,  to  Mar.  22,  a.d.  90;  especially  inter- 
esting to  Bible  students  are  the  bank  registrations  and 
other  accounts  dated  a.d.  17  and  23,  during  the  life- 
time of  our  Lord ;  the  sale  of  an  ass's  colt  a.d.  52 ;  and 
a  death  report  in  the  twelfth  year  of  Nero,  September, 
A.D.  66.  Was  St.  Paul  alive  when  the  latter  was 
written  ? 

One  of  the  most  important  documents  published  in 
this  volume  established  for  the  first  time  the  regularity 
of  the  Roman  census  which  was  connected  with  the  poll 
tax  during  a  fourteen-year  period,  the  men  being  liable 
to  this  poll  tax  from  the  age  of  14  to  60,  and  women 
from  12  to  60.  The  earliest  census  of  which  any  direct 
evidence  had  previously  been  found  dated  from  the 
eighth  year  of  Nero,  a.d.  61 ;  but  by  the  proof  found  in 
this  document  of  the  fourteen-year  period  the  census 
was  carried  back  to  9-6  B.C.,  the  birth  year  of  our 
Lord,  thus  explaining  the  previous  puzzle  concerning 
the  enrolment  of  Quirinius.  Previous  to  this  it  had 
been  thought  necessary  by  scholars  to  affirm  either  that 
this  ruler  had  been  several  times  governor  of  the 
province  of  Syria,  or  else  to  admit  an  inaccuracy  in 
St.  Luke's  account  (Luke  2:2);  but  these  new  census 
reports  suggested  a  better  interpretation  of  the  above 
text  in  which  the  earlier  or  "first"  enrolment  is  evidently 
referred  to  rather  than  the  first  governorship  of 
Quirinius.  Sir  W.  M.  Ramsay  ^'"^  was  the  first  to  see  the 
importance  of   this   new   document;  but   since   then   a 

"'  Was  Christ  horn  at  Bethlehem,  1898. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OE  PAPYRI  47 

large  number  of  these  tax  enrolments  have  been  found, 
the  earliest  3'-et  discovered  being  in  a.d.  20.  If,  as  now 
seems  fairly  certain,  Augustus  began  this  system  of  a 
periodic  census  once  in  every  fourteen  years,  and  if  this 
is  what  Luke  refers  to,  we  are  able  for  the  first  time  to 
reconcile  all  previous  ''contradictions"  concerning  the 
^date  of  our  Lord's  birth — which  must  now  be  placed 
somewhere  between  9  B.C.  and  6  B.C.  The  exact  year 
can  not  be  named,  as  such  general  enrolments  would 
necessarily  be  prolonged,  especially  in  the  outskirts  of 
the  empire.  In  order  that  the  reader  may  see  the  exact 
nature  of  the  edict  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
journey  of  Joseph  and  Mary  to  Bethlehem,  we  append 
in  full  one  of  these  documents: 

"Gains  Vibius  Maximiis,  prefect  of  Egypt,  saith :  The  enrol- 
ment by  household  being  at  hand,  it  is  necessary  to  notify  all  who 
for  any  cause  soever  are  outside  their  homes  to  return  to  their 
domestic  hearths,  that  they  may  also  accomplish  the  customary 
dispensation  of  enrolment  and  continue  steadfastly  in  the  hus- 
bandry that  belongeth  to  them"  (A.  Deissmann,  Light  from  the 
Ancient  East,  pp.  268-269). 

The  next  two  volumes  of  British  Museum  papyri 
(1907,  1910)  furnish  less  material  concerning  the 
times  in  which  Bible  students  are  most  interested;  yet 
there  is  one  letter  addrest  to  Demetrius  (a.d.  113),  and 
another  in  faint  ink  dated  probably  in  the  very  year  in 
which  Jesus,  as  a  boy,  went  up  to  the  Temple;  a  tax 
receipt  (a.d.  ii)  ;  a  most  novel  diploma  of  membership 
in  a  famous  athletic  club;  a  rhetorical  composition 
dealing  with  friendship ;  a  curious  Egyptian  romance  in 
demotic  written  on  the  back  of  an  official  document 
dealing  with  the  land  revenue;  a  receipt  from  a  livery 
stable  keeper;  a  deed  of  divorce  after  less  than  a  year 


48       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  marriage;  a  number  of  comic  poems  and  various 
legal  documents  concerning  the  guild  of  ironworkers 
which  supplied  iron  for  the  public  service,  signed  by 
the  president,  Aurelius  Severus;  others  from  the  guild 
of  bakers,  the  guild  of  masons,  and  from  AureHus 
Irenseus,  president  of  the  guild  of  carpenters,  etc. 
There  are  also  certain  orders  for  wheat  guaranteed  to 
be  delivered  a.d.  65-66,  and  a  letter  considerably  earlier 
than  this  from  Menon  to  Hermocrates,  complaining 
about  certain  actions  of  a  Jew  named  Daniel. 

The  Aphrodite  papyri,  published  by  the  British 
Museum  in  19 10,  consist  of  several  hundreds  of  docu- 
ments, all  coming  from  the  same  village  and  all  writ- 
ten within  twenty  years  of  one  another.  Altho  these 
are  considerably  later  than  the  period  in  which  we  are 
specially  interested,  they  are  of  great  value  since  they 
give  a  vivid  picture  of  the  conditions  in  Egypt  imme- 
diately after  the  Moslem  conquest  (a.d.  698-722).  It  is 
here  strikingly  illustrated  that  altho  the  Moslems  were 
exempt  from  taxation  and  the  Christians  heavily  taxed 
and  otherwise  handicapped,  yet  comparatively  few 
Christians  apostatized,  and  they  even  succeeded,  because 
of  their  superior  trustworthiness  or  cleverness,  in  re- 
taining a  large  number  of  important  posts  under  the 
government,  some  Christians  being  employed  even  in 
the  governor's  household.  We  refer  to  this  as  being 
a  fair  exemplification  of  what  happened  in  the  first 
century  and  as  a  good  parallel  to  the  statements — 
which  some  scholars  have  found  it  so  difficult  to  be- 
lieve— that  some  even  among  the  first  generation  of 
Christians  might  have  become  members  of  Caesar's 
household."    It  is  a  thrilling  indication  of  the  firmness 

"  Phil.  4 :  22 ;  compare  especially  papyri  1373  and  1447. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  49 

and  loyalty  of  these  conquered  Christians  to  their  divine 
Master  that  even  the  governor's  private  secretary 
would  not  use  in  his  official  correspondence  any  of  the 
distinctive  Mohammedan  formulae,  and  it  also  speaks 
well  for  his  recognized  efficiency  that  he  was  allowed 
to  do  this  and  keep  his  position.  The  office  of  secretary 
was  laborious  as  well  as  honorable,  since  official  docu- 
ments were  quite  generally  written  in  both  Greek  and 
Arabic. 

One  of  the  greatest  libraries  of  papyri  in  England, 
just  made  available  to  scholars,  is  the  John  Ryland's 
Library  in  Manchester.  There  are  at  least  7,000 
MSS.  in  this  collection,  the  nucleus  of  which  was  ob- 
tained by  Mrs.  Rylands  in  1892  from  the  late  Earl 
Spencer,  6,000  additional  rolls  being  purchased  nine  or 
ten  years  later  from  the  Earl  of  Crowford.  Mr.  A.  S. 
Hunt,  of  whom  we  have  heard  so  much,  purchased 
most  of  these  papyri  for  Lord  Crowford  and  Mrs. 
Rylands  in  1892  and  later.  In  191 1  Dr.  Hunt  began  to 
edit  the  Greek  papyri  in  this  collection,  the  demotic 
and  Coptic  MSS.  having  been  edited  by  other  scholars 
earlier.  In  the  first  volume,  which  contained  only 
literary  texts,  there  were  many  papyri  from  the  class- 
ical period,  including  a  very  abstruse  and  learned 
astronomical  treatise  dating  from  the  third  century 
after  Christ,  and  a  treatise  on  physiology  dating  from 
the  first  century  B.C.  The  latter  deals  particularly  with 
the  nervous  system  of  the  human  body,  and  it  is  satis- 
factory to  note  that  the  distinction  between  motor  and 
sensory  nerves  is  stated  clearly  and  with  almost  scien- 
tific accuracy.  A  number  of  medical  recipes  for  va- 
rious ailments  (third  century)  were  also  found,  in 
which  the  medicine  was  put  up  in  the  form  of  lozenges 


50       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

or  pastilles;  there  was  also  a  recipe  for  tooth  powder.  It 
sounds  very  modern  also  to  find  in  a  political  treatise 
of  the  first  century  B.C.,  an  argument  urging  that  the 
army  be  put  in  a  state  of  preparedness,  and  that  it  be 
supported  not  by  sporadic  requisitions  from  the  war 
office,  but  by  regular  levies. 

Some  of  the  lyrics  brought  to  light  in  this  publica- 
tion are  very  curious;  for  example,  in  one  second 
century  poem  we  have  the  following  lament  of  a  maiden 
whose  lover  has  been  carried  off  to  fight  as  a  gladiator, 
whose  release  she  has  not  been  able  to  obtain  by  the 
heaviest  bribe  she  could  ofifer. 

maiden's  lament 
"You,  it  is  you  I  call !    Terrible  things  are  happening  to  our  boy, 
They  have  persuaded  him  to  fight  alone  with  evil  beasts. 
O  Zeus,  may  my  voice  reach  thee  and  not  be  unheard !"  ^* 

One  sumptuous  papyrus  contains  a  comedy  of  the 
second  century,  but  it  is  difficult  to  get  any  good  appre- 
ciation of  the  jokes  involved  if,  indeed,  it  was  necessary 
to  have  real  wit  in  these  ancient  plays.  Some  of  the 
"limericks"  that  have  been  preserved  show  no  more 
humor  or  novelty  than  those  made  in  modern  times, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  lines,  written  in  St. 
Jerome's  day,  to  a  newly  wedded  couple: 

"Bridegroom,  the  sweet  Graces  and  glory  attend  thee.  .  .  . 
Dear  bride,  great  and  abiding  joy  be  thine !" 

The  classical  texts  in  this  volume  are  particularly 
valuable,  especially  one  large  vellum  book  written 
about  A.D.  300,  which  contains  a  considerable  part  of 
Homer's  Odyssey  (books  xi-xxiv).  It  is  written  in 
brown  ink,  easily  decipherable,  and  gives  a  mixed  text 

"The  word  for  beasts  used  here  is  not  the  same  as  in  1  Cor.  15:  32. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  51 

which  does  not  fall  in  Hne  with  any  other  manuscript 
extant.  Its  size  may  be  indicated  from  the  fact  that  it 
fills  solidly  over  seventy  folio  pages  in  the  printed 
publication. 

Far  more  interesting,  however,  to  ordinary  people, 
than  any  of  the  classical  texts  are  some  curious  school- 
boy note-books,  or  examination  papers,  coming  from  the 
third  and  later  centuries.  Demosthenes  "On  the 
Crown"  seems  to  have  been  a  favorite  exercise  for  the 
boys  to  practise  on  at  that  time.  In  one  exercise, 
which  was  probably  a  primary  copy-book,  the  first  line 
of  this  oration  is  copied  over  and  over  again.  In  an- 
other of  these  ancient  school-boy  papers  the  student 
has  written  at  the  end  of  his  assignment: 

"Good  luck  to  the  writer  and  to  the  reader." 

Evidently,  this  little  rascal  was  either  on  very  good 
terms  with  his  teacher  or  else  felt  reasonably  certain, 
as  it  is  rumored  some  modern  high-school  students  do, 
that  the  work  done  would  not  be  very  thoroughly  ex- 
amined. 

The  chief  value  of  this  great  collection  is  its  re- 
ligious texts.  We  will  use  these  constantly  in  later 
chapters  of  this  work,  but  we  may  mention,  as  a  matter 
of  exceptional  interest,  that  among  the  Samaritan 
MSS.  there  is  one  very  early  vellum  codex  of  the 
Pentateuch  (copied  a.d.  1211);  among  the  Syriac 
texts  there  is  a  vellum  codex  of  the  gospels  coming 
from  the  sixth  century,  this  being  probably  the  oldest 
complete  Syriac  copy  of  the  four  gospels  in  existence; 
there  is  also  a  copy  of  the  Nicene  Creed  dating  from 
the  sixth  century.  This  is  the  oldest  known  copy 
of  this  famous  creed;  but  while  it  does  not  coincide 


52       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

exactly  with  any  other  version,  it  differs  only  slightly 
from  these.  At  the  end  of  this  MS.  the  scribe  has 
written  his  own  confession  of  faith: 

"This  is  my  creed.  With  this  language  I  shall  approach  with- 
out fear  the  terrible  judgment  seat  of  the  Lord  Christ  in  that 
dread  day  when  he  shall  come  again  in  his  own  glory  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead  and  to  reign  with  the  saints  for  ever  and  ever, 
Amen." 

From  what  may  be  a  private  book  of  devotion,  dating 
from  the  fifth  century,  we  take  this  passage: 

"Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me;  of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  On  thee  do  I  wait  all  the  day.  Remember 
thy  tender  mercies  O  Lord.  .  .  .  Saviour  keep  me,  O  Lord,  as  the 
apple  of  thy  eyes.  .  .  .  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  gracious  God, 
and  save  me." 

One  of  the  most  curious  things  in  the  whole  collection 
is  a  little  papyrus  book  of  magic,  coming  from  the 
fourth  century,  so  small  that  it  could  have  been  easily 
carried  in  the  pocket.  Eight  leaves  of  this  book  are  pre- 
served, with  the  string  that  held  them  in  place  yet 
unbroken.  It  is  exactly  the  kind  of  book  which  the 
Christian  Church  always  repudiated  (Acts  19:  19),  but 
which  was  very  popular  with  the  heathen  and,  doubt- 
less, with  the  more  superstitious  among  the  Christians. 
It  gives  the  prognostications  to  be  derived  from  invol- 
untary twitchings  of  various  parts  of  the  body,  and 
is  almost  certainly  a  part  of  the  celebrated  work  of 
Melampus,  thus  dating  back  to  the  first  century. 

"If  the  abdomen  quiver,  it  denotes  something  good  with  ad- 
verse talk.  If  the  right  part  of  the  hips  quiver,  the  person  will 
have  grief  for  the  time  being,  and  afterward  gladness  on  his  own 
account  or  that  of  a  friend.  If  both  parts  of  the  hips  quiver,  a 
person  so  affected  will  stand  in  the  grip  of  a  two-fold  trouble.  .  .  . 
If  the  groin  of  an  unmarried  person  quiver  it  denotes  marriage. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  53 

...  If  the  left  knee  quivers  it  denotes  changes  and  troubles  from 
females.  ...  If  a  woman's  right  leg  quivers,  it  denotes  loveli- 
ness; pray  and  sacritice  to  Aphrodite!  If  a  man's  right  shin 
quiver  it  denotes  that  he  will  be  very  wealthy;  pray  to  Hermes. 
...  If  the  left  leg  bone  quiver,  it  denotes  that  he  will  go  on  a 
long  and  unexpected  journey.  ...  If  the  left  calf  quiver  he  will 
have  pain  over  a  woman  or  a  friend ;  pray  to  Fortune.  ...  If  the 
great  toe  quiver,  it  signifies  for  a  slave  that  he  will  become  a 
master  and  be  freed  from  all  pain ;  if  the  fourth  toe  quiver,  he  will 
be  lord  of  much  wealth  and  many  slaves,  and  a  slave  will  be  his 
heir,"  etc. 

The  second  volume  of  this  remarkable  work  ap- 
peared in  191 5/''  As  these  texts  date  from  the  Roman 
period  or  earlier,  we  shall  use  them  constantl}^  in  the 
next  section  of  this  work,  and  we  shall,  therefore,  only 
now  mention  an  Astrological  Dialog  (third  century), 
in  which  various  parts  of  the  body  are  connected  with 
the  sun,  moon,  and  planets,  and  signs  of  the  Zodiac — a 
fortune-teller's  chart,  which  ought  to  be  read  in  con- 
nection with  that  given  above — and  a  letter  of  the 
second  century  which,  tho  containing  no  Christian 
phrase,  sounds  very  Christianlike.  The  astrological 
piece  reads  in  part: 

"The  Sun  is  the  right  eye,  the  moon  the  left ;  the  tongue,  smell, 
and  hearing  belong  to  Mercury ;  the  viscera  to  Jupiter ;  the  chest 
to  Mars  ;  the  spleen  to  Venus ;  the  kidneys  to  Saturn  ;  the  buttocks 
to  Libra;  the  nails  to  Capricorn,"  etc. 

The  letter  referred  to  was  written  by  two  women  to 
their  steward,  and  is  very  different  from  most  letters  on 
similar  subjects. ^^* 

'*  Catalog  of  the  Greek  Papyri  in  the  Jolin  Rylands  Library,  Manchester, 
Vol.  II ;  Ed.  by  J.  de  M.  Johnson,  M.A.,  Victor  Martin,  Docteur  es  Let- 
tres,  Geneve,  and  Arthur  S.  Hunt,  D.  Litt.,  F.B.A.,  Prof,  of  Papyrology  in 
University  of  Oxford. 

"'  Dr.  Victor  Martin  writes  me  that  internal  evidence  disproves  my  first 
impression  that  this  was  a  Christian  letter. 


54       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"Demarion  and  Irene  to  their  dearest  Syrus,  very  many  greet- 
ings. 

"We  know  that  you  are  distressed  about  the  deficiency  of 
water;  this  has  happened  not  to  us  only  but  to  many  and  we 
know  that  nothing  has  occurred  through  any  fault  of  yours.  We 
now  know  your  zeal  and  attentiveness  to  the  work  of  the  building 
and  we  hope  that  with  God's  help  (ow  ©ew)  the  field  will  be 
sown.  .  .  .  We  pray  for  your  health." 

This  volume  should  not  be  dismissed  without  men- 
tioning- the  large  group  of  petitions  dating  from 
Euhemeria,  a.d.  28-48,  and  the  addition  to  our  knowl- 
edge concerning  taxation  in  the  first  century  which 
other  texts,  with  the  editorial  comments,  have  given. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  first  publications 
which  stimulated  critical  interest  in  these  papyri  were 
the  earlier  volumes  of  the  Oxyrhynchus  texts  put  out 
by  Grenfell  and  Hunt.  While  all  this  other  work, 
which  we  have  just  narrated,  was  being  accomplished, 
these  scholars  kept  sending  out,  from  tinie  to  time,  ad- 
ditional volumes  from  the  ruins  of  this  city,  each 
volume  rivaling  the  last  in  interest.  Between  1908 
and  191 5  six  large  volumes  appeared,  upon  which  we 
shall  now  draw  for  certain  illustrative  material,  too  in- 
teresting to  be  omitted  and  yet  not  naturally  falling 
into  our  future  argument.  In  all  of  these  volumes 
many  classical  fragments  appear;  the  MSS.  often  are 
written  with  beautiful  care,  and  accents,  breathings, 
and  marks  of  quantity  and  elision  occur  freely 
in  some  papyri,  even  as  early  as  the  second  and  third 
centuries  of  our  era.  Many  of  these  productions,  such 
as  the  first  or  second  century  Menander,  were  also 
punctuated  rhetorically,  a  high  dot  representing  a  long 
pause  and  a  low  dot  a  short  pause.  In  the  dramas  a 
change  of  speakers  was  sometimes  marked  by  double 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  55 

dots.  One  of  these  texts,  a  commentary  on  Thucydides 
written  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  Christi;in  era, 
actually  contains  critical  textual  notes  and  exegetical 
comments. 

Some  of  these  ancient  literary  works  occasionally 
give  to  us  very  curious  information,  as,  for  example, 
when  in  some  fragments  recovered  from  a  new  play 
of  Euripides  we  read  how  the  women  at  one  time,  in 
their  advocacy  of  "woman's  rights,"  massacred  all  the 
men  of  a  certain  island  and  seized  the  government — 
and  what  happened  afterward!  This  newly  recovered 
work  was  written  just  a  little  before  the  "Frogs"  of 
Aristophanes,  which  was  doubtless  intended  to  parody 
this  play.  So,  in  a  little  papyrus  book  of  seven  leaves, 
containing  a  story  by  Callimachus  of  a  girl  sleeping 
with  her  affianced  suitor,  we  obtain  some  very  good 
epigrams,  such  as  "Verily,  much  knowledge  is  a  griev- 
ous ill  for  one  who  controls  not  his  tongue;  how  truly 
is  he  a  child  possest  of  a  knife." 

Numbers  of  legal  documents  give  the  formula  and 
conditions  of  "adoption,"  which  St.  Paul  knew  so  well 
and  upon  which  he  based  some  of  his  rabbinical  argu- 
ments; and  numbers  of  others  have  to  do  with  the 
"making  free"  of  slaves,  which  was  one  of  the  great 
apostle's  favorite  figures,  illustrating  the  way  in  which 
freedom  came  to  the  Christian.  The  customary  formula 
in  such  an  emancipation  read  something  like  this: 

"In year  of  our  Emperor the  most  illus- 
trious Caesar,  I ,  son  (or  daughter)  of 

my  mother,  being  of  the  city  of ,  have  set  free  my 

slave   aged    years,  of  middle  height,   fair, 

having  a  long  face  and  a  scar  on  the  right  foot,  his  mother  being 

,  for drachmae  of  coined  silver.    I  hereby 

agree  voluntarily  and  of  my  own  free  will  and  irrevocably  to  the 


56       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

freedom  of  said under  sanction  of  Zeus,  Earth,  and  Sun 

(the  deed  being  drawn  up  in  the  street)   and  said    can 

henceforth  have  and  hold  himself  to  be  a  free  man  since  I  have 
here  freed  him  unto  this  liberty  wherewith  I  have  made  him  free." 
(Compare  Gal.  5  :  i.)  ^*' 

Two  articles  of  apprenticeship  also  ought  to  throw 
a  vivid  light  upon  the  era  in  which  'Christianity,  the 
"religion  of  the  Carpenter,"  made  its  successful  en- 
trance into  the  thought  of  artizans  throughout  the 
world . 

APPRENTICESHIP  TO  A  WEAVER    (a.D.    183) 

"Ischrion,  son  of  Heradion  and of  Oxyrhynchus  and 

Heraclas  son  of  Sarapio,  also  called  Leon agree  with  each 

other  as  follows Thonis,  a  minor,  to  be  taught  the  art  of 

weaving  for  a  period  of  five  years his  stipulated  period  of 

work  being  every  day  from  sunrise  to  sunset For  the  first 

two  years  and  seven  months Heraclas  shall  pay  nothing 

for  the  boy's  wages,  but  for  the  remaining  five  months  of  the  third 
year  he  shall  pay  him  twelve  drachmae  a  month,  for  the  fourth 
year,  sixteen  drachmae  a  month,  and  for  the  fifth  year  twenty-four 
drachmae." 

Each  year  Heraclas  agrees  to  furnish  his  apprentice 
with  a  new  tunic,  which  shall  the  fiirst  year  cost  six- 
teen drachmae  and  the  following  years  twenty 
drachmae,  twenty-four  drachmae,  twenty-eight 
drachmae,  and  thirty-two  drachmae,  respectively.  The 
contract  continues: 

"The  boy  shall  have  twenty  holidays  in  the  year  on  account  of 
festivals  without  any  deduction  from  his  wages,  after  the  pay- 
ment of  wages  begins." 

Arrangements  are  finally  made  that  if  through  idleness 
or   ill  health  he   exceed   the  number   of   holidays,   his 

"  Greek  scholars  will  notice  that  I  have  here  imitated  in  a  free  way 
the  redundancy  of  language  shown  in  the  Papyrus  Edmondstone  Oxyrhyn- 
chus Papyri,  Vol.  IV,  p.  202. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OE  PAPYRI  57 

guardian,  or  master,  shall  be  responsible  for  his 
serving  an  equal  nuinljer  of  extra  days  beyond 
his  allotted  apprenticeship,  feeding-  him  during  this 
period.  Each  party  is  held  to  this  agreement  by  a  fine 
of  one  hundred  drachmae  to  the  party  abiding  by  the 
contract,  "and  to  the  treasury  an  equal  sum." 

APPRENTICESHIP    TO   A    SHORTHAND    WRITER    (a.D.    1 55) 

"Panechotes to  Apollonius,  writer  of  shorthand,  greeting. 

I  have  placed  with  you  my  slave  Chaerammon  to  be  taught 
the  signs  which  your  son  Dionysius  knows,  for  a  period  of  two 

years  at  the  salary  agreed  upon  between  us,   120  silver 

drachmae,  not  including  feast  days;  of  which  sum  you  have  re- 
ceived the  first  instahiient  amounting  to  forty  drachmae,  and  you 
will  receive  the  second  instalment  (forty  drachmae)  when  the  boy 
has  learned  the  whole  system,  and  the  third  you  will  receive  at  the 
end  of  the  period  when  the  boy  writes  fluently  in  every  respect 
and  reads  faultlessly." 

Among  the  classical  texts,  new  and  old,  brought 
to  light  in  Vol.  VIII  of  the  Oxyrhynchus  texts,  we 
ought  to  mention  especially  the  Meliambi  of  Cercidas 
the  Cynic,  an  author  who  had  previously  been  represen- 
ted only  by  about  a  dozen  lines  gleaned  from  scattered 
citations.  This  large  manuscript,  dating  from  the 
second  century  B.C.,  discusses  how  the  facts  of  life  can 
be  reconciled  with  the  view  that  the  so-called  gods  are 
at  once  just  and  all-powerful.  If  Zeus  is  Father,  "why 
are  some  of  us  treated  in  such  a  step-fatherly  fashion?" 

He  ridicules  the  deities  who  have  neither  hearing 
nor  sight.  If  they  really  exist,  he  says,  it  ought  to  be 
easy  for  them  to  take  the  "swinish  wealth"  away  from 
the  "dirty  usurer"  and  give  it  to  the  one  "who  takes 
his  bite  in  season  and  shares  his  cup  with  a  neighbor." 
He  utterly  repudiates  the  fictitious  gods  of  the  astrol- 
ogers, preferring  himself  the  three  earthly  divinities, 


58       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Healing,  Giving,  and  Retribution.  This  poem  shows 
very  well  the  attitude  of  the  l^ctter  elasses  with  refer- 
ence to  polytheism  and  their  tendency  to  agnosticism 
at  this  era.  The  second  poem  is  on  "Love,"  and  Cer- 
cidas,  like  Diogenes,  decries  marriage  and  describes 
love  as  the  occupation  of  the  idle. 

There  was  also  published  in  this  volume  an  anony- 
mous satyric  drama,  formerly  unknown,  and  also  a 
new  commentary  on  the  Iliad  (first  century  B.C.),  on 
the  back  of  which  were  medical  recipes  of  the  first 
century  after  Christ,  including  local  applications  to  in- 
duce sneezing  (for  good  luck) ;  an  application  to  cure 
leprosy;  potions  for  fever,  liver  complaint,  dropsy,  etc. 
To  men  of  sedentary  habits  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
know  that  anise,  opium,  and  henbane  are  among  the 
prescriptions  to  cure  insomnia,  A  number  of  wills 
are  given,  one  of  these  showing  how  a  rich  man  (a.d. 
237)  was  able,  by  a  legal  trick,  to  leave  his  inheritance 
of  200,000  sesterces  to  his  heirs  free  from  the  custom- 
ary income  tax  of  5  per  cent.  It  looks  as  if  capitalists 
have  had  shrewd  lawyers  to  advise  them  in  every  age. 

In  Vol.  IX  (1912)  there  are  various  new  classical 
texts,  but  especially  a  "Life  of  Euripides,"  by 
Satyrus  (circa  150  b.c),  in  which  he  gives  some 
spicy  gossip  concerning  the  philosopher's  relation 
with  women,  saying  that  at  one  time  the  women  joined 
together  and  came  in  a  body  to  mob  him.  He,  how- 
ever, believes  that  Euripides  has  more  of  the  flavor  of 
life  in  his  poetry  than  all  other  writers,  as  is  proved 
by  this  recipe  for  poetry: 

"Take  some  Sophocles  and  a  little  yEschylus  but  put  in  a 
whole  Euripides." 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  59 

In  Vol.  X  (1914)  are  published  some  new  texts 
of  Sappho  elsewhere  given,  some  fragments  of  unknown 
comedies,  a  work  of  Alcseus  (second  century),  urging 
men  to  forget  their  troubles  in  the  wine  cup;  a  critical 
literary  work  (second  century),  in  which  an  outline 
is  given  of  each  play  of  Menander  with  an  appraise- 
ment of  its  value;  and,  finally,  a  "Chrestomathy" 
(second  century),  in  which  a  historic  catalog  of  the 
great  men  of  ancient  times  is  made,  including  sculptors, 
painters,  grammarians,  soldiers,  and  inventors. 

We  have  given  this  extended  outline  of  these  latest 
Oxyrhynchus  "finds"  because  they  were  the  richest  of 
all;  yet  many  treasures  have  been  reported  by  these 
and  other  explorers  which  well  deserve  mention,  e.g., 
the  "Pseans  of  Pindar"  (first  or  second  century) ;  a 
Greek  history  "worthy  to  be  compared  to  that  of  Hero- 
dotus"; four  comedies  (1,300  lines)  of  Menander;  the 
Idyls  of  Theocritus  (who  was  the  originator  of  the 
idyl),  seven  centuries  older  than  any  other  copy;  an 
illustrated  botanical  work,  probably  by  Dioscorides;  a 
treatise  on  ethics  by  the  Stoic  Hierocles ;  a  grammatical 
work  containing  among  other  valuable  things  a  list  of 
words  with  their  shorthand  equivalents;  various  so- 
called  "erotic"  fragments,  a  farce  and  mime  of  the 
early  Roman  period  "which  look  like  survivals  of  a 
local  music  hall";  a  fragment  of  a  book  of  fables  by 
Babrino — who  is  now  proved  by  this  to  have  lived  in 
the  second  or  first  century,  not  the  third;  a  romance 
by  Achilles  Tatius,  who  is  thus  proved  to  have  lived 
about  A.D.  300,  instead  of  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  century, 
as  previously  argued  by  the  critics;  and  a  splendid  pa- 
pyrus roll  over  twelve  feet  long,  containing  a  large 
part  of  Plato's  "Symposium." 


6o       TllJi  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Perhaps  the  only  one  of  these  works  which  would 
greatly  interest  the  general  reader  is  the  new  poem 
by  Pindar,  only  small  fragments  of  which  had  ever 
been  seen  before.  As  translated  by  the  editor,  one 
verse  of  this  reads: 

"Ere  the  pains  of  old  age  draw  nigh  let  a  man  clothe  his  mind 
with  cheerfulness  and  be  content  in  due  measure,  seeing  the  power 
that  is  set  in  his  house. 

"Oh  joy !  Now  the  consummating  year  and  the  Hours,  children 
of  Themis,  have  come  to  the  horse-loving  city  of  Thebes  bring- 
ing Apollo's  garlanded  feast ; 

"May  he  long  crown  the  generations  of  the  citizens  with  the 
flowers  of  sobriety  and  good  governmen'^ " 

The  most  recently  published  volume  of  Oxyrhynchus 
texts  (Vol.  XI)  reached  American  subscribers  in  1916; 
but  even  a  hasty  examination  shows  that  it  almost 
equals  the  best  of  its  predecessors  in  the  novelty  of  its 
contents.  It  contains  discoveries  made  chiefly  in 
1905-6.  Among  the  classical  texts  reported  is  a  large 
fragment  of  Thucydides  (968  lines),  and  a  romance 
from  the  third  century  relating  the  adventures  of 
Glaucetes  who,  during  a  ride,  sees  the  ghost  of  a  youth 
who  points  out  where  he  and  a  maiden  lie  buried 
after  being  foully  murdered.  Such  stories  were  very 
popular  among  the  middle  classes  of  the  early  centuries, 
as  were  also  stories  of  miraculous  cures  and  escapes.  A 
sailor's  chant,  in  which  he  prays  to  the  Rhodian  winds 
for  a  calm  voyage  (third  century),  is  probably  the  re- 
production of  a  song  so  ancient  that  it  may  have  been 
heard,  just  as  we  now  have  it,  by  Luke,  when  he  and 
Paul  sailed  over  these  dangerous  waters  (Acts  21:1): 

'T  said  to  the  seaward  parts  that  the  sea  should  not  be  smitten. 
Make  the  ocean  obedient  to  seafarers !    Suddenly  a  whole  tempest 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  6i 

arises.     Shut  off  the  winds  and  night.     Grant  that  the  waters  be 
smooth !" 

But  the  chief  wealth  of  this  volume  consists  of 
three  remarkable  religious  texts,  two  of  which  are 
heathen  and  one  Christian.  The  latter  papyrus  gives 
us  "one  of  the  most  interesting  documents  concerning 
the  early  Egyptian  Church  that  have  been  discovered." 
It  is  a  calendar  of  church  services  at  Oxyrhynchus. 
Altho  this  town  had  suffered  a  collapse,  seemingly,  at 
the  end  of  the  third  and  in  the  fourth  centuries,  it  had 
begun  to  recover  its  lost  activity  in  the  fifth  century, 
and  by  the  sixth  century  it  had  become  a  "veritable 
stronghold  of  Christianity,"  as  this  document  proves. 
This  public  placard  of  services,  just  recovered,  gives 
the  list  of  meetings  to  be  held  at  various  churches  in 
the  town  on  Sundays,  and  festivals  during  an  almost 
continuous  period  of  five  months,  beginning  with  Oc- 
tober 21,  A.D.  535. 

These  series  of  special  services  were  in  honor  of  the 
visit  of  the  patriarch — either  Timotheus,  the  patriarch 
of  Alexandria,  or  Severus  of  Antioch,  who  was,  as  Dr. 
Crum  has  pointed  out,  the  Monophysite  patriarch  par 
excellence.  We  know  that  the  bishop  of  Oxyrhynchus 
the  year  previously  was  Abba  Peter,  so  that  he  may 
have  conducted  these  "stations,"  probably  celebrating 
the  eucharist  in  the  chiu'ches  named.  Sixty-two 
services  were  held  in  twenty-six  different  churches, 
which  proves  how  greatly  these  buildings  had  multi- 
plied since  the  preceding  century,  when  there  were 
twelve  churches  in  the  town  and,  as  the  learned  editor 
points  out,  at  least  one  church  must  have  continued 
in  existence,  even  during  the  terrible  persecution  of 
Diocletian.     Some  of  the  churches  bear  names  which 


62       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

are  yet  common  in  Egypt,  such  as  "St.  Mary,"  "St. 
Justus,"  "St.  Menas,"  etc.,  while  Michael,  Gabriel, 
Jeremiah,  and  Zacharias  also  have  clun*clies  named 
after  them,  and  it  seems  exceedingly  modern  to  read 
of  the  "Church  of  the  Evangelist"  (probably  St.  John), 
the  "Church  of  the  Baptist"  and  the  South  and  the 
North  Church — the  last  two  evidently  being  named 
either  from  their  relative  location  in  the  city,  or  from 
the  name  of  the-  streets  on  which  they  were  situated. 
One  name  not  now  common  bears  a  pathetic  reference 
to  the  sufferings  of  this  Oxyrhynchus  church  during 
the  early  persecutions,  the  "Church  of  the  Martyrs." 
In  an  "Invocation  to  Isis,"  preserved  from  the 
second  century,  we  get  an  original  document  showing 
us,  for  the  first  time,  with  certainty,  the  words  of 
ritual  or  private  worship  used  by  an  initiate  of  this 
faith.  Altho  written  in  the  second  century,  it  almost 
certainly  was  composed  as  early  as  the  first  (p.  191). 
As  the  Isis  worship  was  popular  in  Rome,  and  even  in 
the  small  Italian  towns  in  the  apostolic  era,  it  is  ab- 
solutely certain  that  the  faith  represented  here  was 
almost  as  well  known  to  all  Christian  teachers  as  that  of 
Mithra  (the  most  popular  religion  of  all),  not  only 
in  Egypt  but  throughout  the  Roman  world.  Isis  was 
the  particular  protectress  of  sailors  and  travelers,  so 
that  the  apostles  on  all  their  voyages  would  hear  her 
hymns  sung  or  witness  the  adoration  of  her  worship- 
ers. She  was  the  special  friend  of  woman,  offering 
to  her  a  power  equal  to  man's,  was  joint  inventor  of 
writing  with  Hermes,  and  was  interested  in  music  and 
all  learning;  but  especially,  in  the  popular  mind,  she 
was  the  goddess  of  immortality.  Outside  of  Egypt 
and  Italy,  as  the  editor  shows,  she  was  worshiped  in 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  63 

Arabia,  Asia  Minor,  Cyrene,  Crete,  Chalcedoii,  the 
^gean  Islands,  Cyprus,  and  Palestine,  and  even  in 
India  and  Persia.  Her  worshiper  here  gives  her 
"name"  in  each  of  these  places,  thus,  perhaps,  attempt- 
ing to  teach  her  universal  nature  and  essential  "one- 
ness," notwithstanding  her  different  names.  Her  titles 
show  rather  a  noble  ideal  and  concept  of  deity: 

"Many-shaped  Aphrodite,  gentle,  affectionate,  immortal,  ruler, 
saviour,  almighty,  holy,  divine,  ...  by  whose  command  images 
and  animals  of  all  the  gods  are  worshiped  .  .  .  the  lady  of  war 
and  rule,  easily  destroying  tyrants  by  trusty  counsels." 

The  lotus  was  her  flower,  probably  because  it  was  the 
symbol  of  immortality,^^  and  the  cow  was  her  animal. 
On  the  back  of  this  unique  papyrus  was  written  a 
poem  in  praise  of  Imouthes-Asclepius,  a  deity  whose 
worship  in  the  early  Christian  centuries  connects 
through  Hermes  with  that  of  I  sis.  The  writer  recounts 
that  he  had  for  a  long  time  wished  to  translate  the 
ancient  praises  of  the  god  but  felt  himself  unworthy; 
but  having  at  a  certain  time  been  cured  of  an  "ungodly 
quartan  ague"  by  seeing  the  god  in  a  vision,  he  was 
finally  constrained  to  attempt  to  "recount  his  marvelous 
manifestations,  the  greatness  of  his  power,  the  gifts  of 
his  benefits."  So  he  begins  his  song  of  praise  by 
crying : 

"Assemble  hither,  ye  kindly  and  good  men ;  avaunt,  ye  malig- 
nant and  impious !  Assemble  all  ye  who  by  serving  the  god  have 
been  cured  of  disease!" 

And  then,  most  unfortunately,  the  papyrus  breaks  oft 
and  the  song  itself  is  lost. 

"  Yet  see  article  "Lotus"  in  Encychpccdia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


64       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  thousands  of  papyri  from  which  we  have  se- 
lected the  above  specimens  of  the  non-Hterary  products 
of  the  first  and  adjoining  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era  are  all  written  in  the  language  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  each  shows  some  turn  of  expression  or  pe- 
culiarity of  grammar  or  vocabulary  familiar  to  the 
student  of  New  Testament  Greek,  or  else  throws  some 
unexpected  light  upon  the  circumstances  surrounding 
the  early  Christians.  By  selecting  these  concrete  ex- 
amples of  the  ancient  literature  from  the  overwhelming 
mass  of  material  examined,  the  author  has  sought  to 
give  the  reader  a  true  and  clear  vision  of  the  new  data 
upon  which  scholars  are  now  building  and  to  make  it 
possible  for  him  to  follow,  with  independent  judgment, 
the  modern  conclusions  from  such  data.  There  has 
been  no  attempt  to  mention  everything  that  has  been 
found,  but  only  to  disentangle  from  the  disorganized 
mass  of  ancient  documents  certain  typical  and  certain 
strange  forms,  together  with  some  new  illustrative 
material,  that  ought  to  be  useful  to  Bible  students. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  above  collections 
of  papyri  used  by  the  author  exhaust  the  material 
available.  We  have  confined  ourselves  almost  entirely 
to  discoveries  made  by  English  explorers;  but,  while 
these  have  indeed  carried  ofi:"  the  chief  honors  in  this 
field,  a  number  of  great  Continental  scholars,  like 
Wilcken  and  Jouquet,  have  dug  for  papyri  in  Egypt; 
and  it  was  Rubensohn,  in  1908,  who  brought  to  light 
at  Abusir  the  only  considerable  body  of  Alexandrian 
papyri  which  has  ever  been  found.  The  learned  ex- 
cavators of  the  Societa  Italiana  have  also  gleaned  at 
Oxyrhynchus,   since    1906,   with   surprizing  success. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  century  Berlin,  Vienna, 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  65 

Florence  and  Paris,  either  by  excavation  or  purchase, 
have  gathered  thousands  of  papyri  and  pubhshed  them 
in  many  volumes,  which  contain  some  rich  fruits  of 
research;  including  many  ancient  Bible  texts,  especially 
a  third  century  Genesis;  some  new  orations  of  Hyper- 
eides;  a  lyric  by  Timotheus  of  Miletus  (fourth  cen- 
tury) ;  and  a  commentary  on  the  Theaetetus,  the  oldest 
extant  literary  papyrus  in  Greek. 

Smaller  but  valuable  collections,  especially  of  non- 
literary  papyri,  have  been  made  by  the  cities  and 
learned  societies  of  Europe,  and  by  American  colleges, 
while  the  celebrated  Tebtunis  papyri,  described  above, 
are  owned  by  the  University  of  California,  and  the 
great  Amherst  collection  was  brought  to  America  by 
the  late  Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan.'^'' 


5.  A  General  View  of  the  District  Where  Most 
OF  THE  Papyri  Were  Found 

(i)  the  fayum 

The  Fayum  is  a  sunken  oasis,  crossed  by  several 
ridges,  situated  in  the  Libyan  desert,  west  of  the  Nile, 
beginning  about  forty  miles  S.SW^  of  Cairo  and  ex- 
tending southward  some  thirty  miles.  The  district 
covered  from  four  hundred  to  nine  hundred  square 
miles  at  different  eras.  In  ancient  time  this  depression 
was  largely  occupied  by  the  famous  Lake  Moeris,  the 
two  chief  towns  on  the  lake  being  Socnopaei  Nesus  on 

^^*  Recent  excavations  at  Theadelphia,  Karara,  and  EI-Hibeh  have 
brought  to  light  few  papyri  (Revue  archeologique,  1915,  pp.  181-188;  Klio, 
1914,  p.  121).  But  the  discoveries  at  Kom  Ishgau  have  yielded  rich  spoil 
(Journal  of  Egyptian  Archaology,  1916,  pp.  288-293). 


66       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  extreme  northwest,  and  Crocodilopolis  (Arsinoe), 
the  capital  city,  which  was  more  centrally  located. 
Oxyrhynchus,  which  is  ordinarily  spoken  of  as  a  Fayiim 
town,  was  really  some  little  distance  south  of  the  oasis, 
but  was  doubtless  in  very  close  touch  with  it,  as  it  was 
built  on  the  Bahr  Yusuf  which  supplied  the  Fayum  with 
water.  An  enormous  mass  of  papyri  has  come  to  us  from 
these  three  cities  and  the  adjoining-  villages,  Oxyrhyn- 
chus being  the  most  important  site,  not  only  because  of 
its  location — lying  within  nine  or  ten  miles  of  the  Nile, 
and  so  close  enough  to  enjoy  some  of  the  privileges 
of  the  Nile  traffic  as  well  as  that  of  the  oasis — but 
also  because  it  was  an  important  Christian  center,  and 
from  the  dust  heaps  of  its  ruins  most  of  the  Christian 
papyri  of  the  early  centuries  have  come. 

From  the  third  century  before  to  the  third  century 
after  Christ  the  entire  Fayum,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
prosperous;  but  it  then  lost  its  prosperity  "as  nowhere 
else  in  Egypt,"  and  the  desert  took  possession  of  this 
former  fertile  district.  Beginning  with  the  fourth  cen- 
tury the  monks  flocked  in  crowds  into  this  desert  dis- 
trict and  soon  well-fortified  monasteries  were  found  in 
many  places  to  which,  in  time  of  danger,  the  people 
were  accustomed  to  flee.  The  stretch  of  desert  sand 
from  six  to  fifteen  miles  in  width,  which  separated  the 
Fayum  from  the  Nile  valley,  must  have  rendered  it  a 
comparatively  hidden  and  secluded  retreat.  The  revolt 
of  the  native  Egyptians  against  the  Romans,  a.d.  175, 
undoubtedly  affected  the  Fayum  population,  as  this 
marked  the  beginning  of  a  rapid  agricultural  decline 
throughout  Egypt.  It  must  also  have  been  seriously 
affected  by  the  persecutions  of  the  Christians  under 
Severus    (a.d.   202),   Decius    (a.d.    250),   and   by   the 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  67 

famine,  panic,  and  persecution  during  the  reign  of  Dio- 
cletian (a.d.  301-303).  It  is  significant  that  the  Coptic 
era  of  the  martyrs  dates  from  Diocletian's  accession. 
The  above  facts  and  dates  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind 
as  one  studies  the  Fayum  papyri  in  their  bearing  upon 
early  Christianity. 

The  architecture  of  the  cities  of  the  Fayum  in  the 
Roman  period  was  not  simply  inferior  to  that  of  Italy, 
but  was  in  a  marked  degree  inferior  to  North  African 
towns  such  as  Timgad,  and  to  many  towns  of  the 
Roman  era  in  Palestine  {cf.  the  author's  Recent  Ex- 
plorations in  Palestine,  pp.  yy,  127).  Of  the  many 
Fayum  towns  which  have  been  dug  up,  very  few  cover- 
ed more  than  eight  or  ten  acres,  the  temples  were  gener- 
ally quite  small  and  built  of  brick  or  native  limestone — 
very  little  resembling  the  elegant  temples  of  the  Delta, 
— the  ordinary  houses  were  constructed  of  unbaked 
brick  one  or  two  stories  high,  the  roofs  were  made  of 
reeds  plastered  with  mud  laid  on  palm  logs,  the  furni- 
ture was  a  negligible  quantity,  and  even  cellars  were 
uncommon  {Fayum  Toivns,  pp.  10-16). 

The  better  class  of  residents  was  of  Greek  extrac- 
tion, and  the  Greek  influence  was  always  strong 
because  the  best  land  of  the  province  had  been 
given  by  the  Emperor  to  his  veteran  Macedonian  sol- 
diers. Doubtless,  the  native  Egyptians  constituted  the 
mass  of  the  population,  however,  and  many  Jews  were 
to  be  found;  the  Greeks  and  natives  intermarried 
freely  and  therefore  the  Fayum  always  remained 
Egyptian  in  its  customs  and  tone  of  thought  as  con- 
trasted with  the  Greek  spirit  of  the  Delta. 

In  the  third  century  the  Fayum  suffered  greater 
encroachment  from  the  desert  than  any  other  nome  in 


68       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Egypt.  Socnopaei  Nesus  was  the  first  town  to  be  de- 
serted. At  this  point  no  papyri  have  been  found  later 
than  the  third  century,  while  many  other  towns  were 
practically  abandoned  in  the  fourth  century,  and  even 
Karanis  and  Tebtunis,  on  the  edge  of  the  cultivated  dis- 
trict, shrank  to  much  smaller  size  (Fay fun  Towns,  pp. 
1 0-16).  Oxyrhynchus  continued  to  thrive,  but  the 
papyri  suggests  that  it,  too,  was  seriously  affected  by 
the  collapse  in  trade. 

The  contrast  between  the  elegance  of  Alexandrian 
life  and  that  of  the  Fayum  was  quite  noticeable.  It  is 
true  that  at  least  one  second  century  papyrus  speaks 
of  a  *'four-story  house"  just  built  in  Hermopolis,  and 
there  are  a  few  other  evidences  of  occasional  wealth; 
but  the  difference  is,  nevertheless,  very  marked  in  every 
era  between  this  country  district  and  the  splendid  and 
luxurious  life  of  the  Delta.  The  collection  of  Alex- 
andrian laws  contained  in  the  papyri  of  Dikaiomata, 
at  Halle,  and  in  others  in  Berlin,  show  vividly,  as 
Wessely  has  pointed  out,  the  ordinary  life  of  Alex- 
andria— the  Alexandrian  waitress  who  insists  on  hav- 
ing a  regular  "day  oif "  mentioned  in  her  contract,  the 
Alexandrian  widow  who  goes  about  destroying  all 
remembrances  of  her  recently  deceased  husband,  and 
the  Alexandrian  literary  man  who,  in  the  vast  libraries 
there,  was  drawing  a  good  salary  from  the  treasury 
of  the  government.  Two  centuries  before  Christ,  one 
of  these  scholars  had  received  a  salary  of  as  much  as 
270  drachmae,  but  it  was  left  for  the  emperors  of  the 
second  century  of  our  era  to  elevate  a  mere  flattering 
rimester  to  high  office  in  the  library  and  university  at 
the  enormous  salary  of  200,000  sestertii,  and  to  advance 
a  favorite  soldier,  who  had  no  claim  to  learning,  to  an 


Wall-painting    on    Tomb,    Maiissa, 
Palestine    (2d    Century   B.C.) 


Capitol  and  Prcpylaeum  at  Timgad, 
North  Africa 


Ancient   Ruins  at   Cii: 
Palestine 


L'ulunilj.'irium   imiii    IJuii  Jibrin, 
Palestine 


SOME  RESULTS  OF  EXCAVATION  AT  SARDIS,  ETC. 


EQUESTRIAN  STATUE  OF  XERO  A    POMPEIAN   NOBLE 


f-— willb— — ill  ill  li— -"■  i>  I  •<■     iiii*  I 
—      .^ — _ — _ 


TTTE   EMPEROR   TIP.ERTUS   AND   A   WO:\r  \X 


i^-^^^-  '«^ 


1 


\    FAMOL'S    P()MPEF\N    BANKER 
OF  THE   APOSTOLIC  AGE 


A  STATUE  OF  A  CHILD 
WORKS  OF  ART  FROM  THE  FIRST  CENTURY  OF  THE  CHRIST!. \X  ERA 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  69 

equally  influential  position  in  this  famous  Academy  of 
Science.^^ 

The  best  cities  of  the  Fayum  seem  like  pitiable  vil- 
lages when  compared  with  the  capital  of  the  Delta,  and 
the  common  life  of  the  Fayum  and  of  the  towns  bor- 
dering it  on  the  Nile  appears  at  best  simple  and  frugal. 
There  were  no  great  manufacturies  of  glass  and  paper 
in  the  Fayum  as  in  the  Delta,  almost  its  sole  manufac- 
ture being  the  weaving  of  linen  cloth,  which  was  car- 
ried on  in  the  simplest  way  in  almost  all  the  villages. 
Even  its  coinage  was  imported,  excepting,  perhaps, 
certain  small  leaden  pieces  which  may  possibly  have 
been  used  as  money.  In  the  great  horde  of  coins  from 
the  Constantine  era  found  in  1905,  it  is  suggestive  to 
note  that  1,592  were  minted  at  Alexandria,  1,611  at 
Antioch,  845  at  Cyzicus,  698  at  Constantinople,  and 
285  at  Rome.^^*  This  indicates  how  "neutral"  was 
this  little  island  in  the  desert,  no  controlling  influences 
reaching  it  from  any  of  these  political  and  ecclesiastical 
centers.  Alexandria  always  seemed  a  foreign  town  to 
native  Egyptians,  and,  as  a  great  scholar  has  recently 
pointed  out,  the  terms  "Alexandrian"  and  "Egyptian" 
were  in  some  ways  antithetical,  altho  this  contrast 
must  not  be  prest  too  far,  since  the  Gospel  to  the 
Egyptians  certainly  shows  the  influence  of  the  Alex- 
andrian philosophy.  Yet  whatever  influence  may  have 
come  indirectly  from  the  Delta  to  the  Fayum  and  to 

"  For  these  and  other  details  given  below  I  am  indebted  to  Wessely, 
Aus  der  Welt  der  Papyri,  p.  (Aff.;  for  much  other  illustrative  material  see 
my  article  "Alexandria"  in  TJie  International  Standard  Bible  Encyclopedia. 
Dr.  Petrie  writes  me  that  270  drachmae  must  be  regarded  as  a  small  salary- 
even  for  teachers,  being  only  equivalent  to  about  $75  in  our  money,  repre- 
senting, when  compared  with  current  prices,  a  salary  equal  to  about  $750 
now. 

^^^  Fayum  Towns,  p.  16;  American  Journal  of  ArchccoJogy,  October, 
1915,  p.  69. 


70       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

upper  Egypt,  it  certainly  was  not  controlling.  The  re- 
ligious papyri  of  this  region  show  very  little  kinship 
with  the  writings  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  and  the 
other  great  Delta  theologians;  even  the  symbols  on  the 
Christian  graves,  as  we  shall  see  later,  are  very  differ- 
ent. The  native  Christians  of  the  Fayum  were  ascetic, 
contemplative,  and  mystical  in  spirit,  and  had  compara- 
tively little  sympathy  with  the  philosophic,  disputatious, 
and  ambitious  churches  in  Alexandria.  The  Egyptian 
theological  controversies  which  compelled  the  Council  of 
Nicsea,  a.d.  325,  found  their  leaders  and  chief  battle- 
ground in  the  Delta.^^" 

In  both  its  literary  output  and  in  its  artistic  products 
the  Fayum  also  differed  widely  from  the  Delta.  The 
pottery  and  terra-cotta  products,  when  compared  with 
those  of  Alexandria,  show  a  very  "low  level  of  achieve- 
ment." ^^  It  is  perfectly  clear  that  wealth  and  luxury 
must  have  been  a  novelty  in  this  district.  While, 
doubtless,  there  were  some  rich  men  in  the  Fayum  who 
owned  or  at  least  controlled  most  of  the  land  and  its 
products,  yet,  from  the  very  numerous  business  and 
private  documents,  it  is  evident  that  the  trade  carried 
on  was  just  such  as  a  poor  country  district  would  de- 
mand, and  there  was  ordinarily  no  such  distinction 
between  classes  as  was  found  farther  north.  This  com- 
parative democracy  of  spirit  is  shown  from  the  fact 
that  even  the  ordinary  fellaheen  and  slaves  can  some- 
times make  their  voices  heard  in  protest  against  op- 
pression. From  a  certain  Hermopolis,  for  example, 
comes  a  series  of  documents  (third  century  B.C.)  in 
which  some  quarrymen  complain  of  their  boss   (Sexd- 

^^  See  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie,  Personal  Religion  in  Egypt,  p.  61. 
"  See  Milne  in  Petrie's  History  of  Egypt,  Vol.  V,  pp.  162j^. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  71 

xaQxog),  concerning  Apollonius,  saying  that  they  are 
much  overworked  by  him,  and  in  response  to  this  petition 
these  men  are  given  wedges  to  Hghten  their  labor. 
Demetrius,  too,  who  distributed  bread  to  these  slaves, 
was  badly  assaulted  by  them,  and  altho  he  complained 
concerning  this,  we  find  him  in  prison  a  month  or  two 
later,  a  fact  suggesting  that  the  slaves  may  have  con- 
vinced the  head  manager  that  he  deserved  all  that  they 
had  given  him,  and  more.  Another  complaint  comes 
from  the  workmen  in  the  copper  mines,  setting  forth 
that  they  have  been  kept  at  work  for  ten  months  stead- 
ily without  rest,  and  from  certain  cavalry  soldiers  who 
petition  the  strategiis,  asking  that  they  be  given  as  much 
pay  as  similar  troops  elsewhere.  Not  only  the  transac- 
tions carried  on  through  the  bank  of  Anubion  in  Anti- 
noopolis  (third  century  a.d.),  but  also  the  private  ac- 
counts of  Heronimus,  who  was  chief  steward  of  private 
properties  located  in  Theadelphia,  giving  the  daily 
record  of  work  done,  money  received,  and  the  payments 
to  workmen  in  cash,  food,  and  wine — all  impress  us  with 
the  conviction  that  these  ancient  southern  towns  were 
very  much  like  the  small  Egyptian  villages  to-day,  in 
the  same  part  of  Egypt.  One  pathetic  proof  of  the 
poverty  of  the  district  is  shown  by  the  pawn-broker's 
record,  in  which  he  gives  the  value  of  the  hoes,  baskets, 
shirts,  etc.,  which  he  had  received  in  pawn.  At  Her- 
mopolis  a  mill,  in  the  first  century,  could  be  leased  for 
seven  months  at  twelve  and  a  half  silver  drachmae  a 
month,  and  a  house  and  court  are  given  for  security 
for  a  loan  of  220  drachmae.  The  poll  tax  here  at  this 
time  was  only  twelve  drachmae,  and  the  pig  tax,  of 
which  we  hear  much,  only  about  two  drachmae.  The 
most  famous  residence  in  this  town,  in  the  third  century 


72      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  our  era,  was  that  of  the  Moros  brothers.  We  have 
a  multitude  of  business  contracts  which  belong  to  this 
family,  from  which  we  learn  much  of  their  family  life. 
These  were  evidently  the  aristocrats  of  the  city,  tho 
Herminus  Moros,  who  comes  to  view  as  early  as 
September  12,  a.d.  194,  was  originally  a  "boxer"  who, 
for  his  prowess,  was  given  at  the  above  date  honorary 
membership  in  the  athletic  club  of  the  city.  Some  thirty 
years  later  (a.d.  226),  two  of  the  Moros  boys  make  a 
declaration  under  oath  in  court  that  they  have  recently 
inherited  from  their  uncle  two-thirds  of  a  house  and 
court  in  Hermopolis,  In  December  of  this  same  year 
one  of  these  brothers  sells  a  house  and  court  for  300 
drachmae,  the  actual  payment  on  the  property  being 
delayed,  however,  until  January  12  of  the  next  year — 
as  we  find  from  the  banker's  certificate,  attached  to  the 
document;  July  31,  a.d.  227,  one  of  these  same  brothers 
buys  one-third  of  a  house  from  the  other,  and  August 
II,  A.D.  231,  a  sister  buys  this  same  property  from  him, 
probably  in  connection  with  a  loan  she  had  made  him 
of  six  hundred  drachmae  some  four  years  before :  The 
prices  of  these  houses  show  their  inferiority.  Abin- 
naeus,  commander  of  the  camp  at  Dionysias,  on  the 
southern  edge  of  the  Fayum,  not  far  from  Oxyrhyn- 
chus,  perhaps  occupied  the  most  conspicuous  place  of 
any  man  well-known  to  us  in  this  district  during  the 
fourth  century  of  our  era.  Twenty  letters  connected 
with  this  military  officer  are  now  in  Geneva  and  thirty- 
seven  more  in  the  British  Museum,  all  of  these  coming 
from  the  period  a.d.  341-351.  We  shall  have  something 
to  say  of  these  letters  later,  but  merely  call  attention 
to  them  at  this  time  to  record  the  fact  that  they  bear 
out  our  conclusion  of  the  general  poverty  of  the  dis- 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  -jt^ 

trict  and  its  particularly  desolated  condition  at  this  era. 
One  of  these  letters,  for  example,  speaks  in  an  em- 
phatic way  of  the  hyenas  which  had  been  devastating 
the  crops,  and  of  the  nets  which  must  be  used  to  protect 
the  growing  grain  from  antelopes.^*^ 

Beginning,  as  we  have  said,  with  the  early  fourth 
century,  the  condition  of  the  farmers  and  middle  classes 
kept  getting  more  and  more  pitiable,  and  the  suffering 
population  soon  fled  in  multitudes  to  the  religious 
houses  on  the  edge  of  the  desert.  This  section  had 
never  been  celebrated  for  its  good  order  and  obser- 
vance of  law,  but  broils  and  injustice  seem  to  become 
more  marked  after  this  date.  Several  records  exist  in 
which  seemingly  entire  villages,  including  the  priests, 
attack  each  other.  As  early  as  the  second  century 
a  man  accuses  his  mother  of  wrongfully  appropriating 
the  property  left  him  by  his  father  and  even  of  assault- 
ing him,  tearing  his  garments,  and  offering  him  phys- 
ical violence;  but  in  the  fourth  century  many  such 
cases  are  recorded,  or  worse.  Syrus  reports  to  the 
police  that  his  wife,  tho  born  a  free  woman,  has  been 
carried  off  as  a  slave,  together  with  her  children,  by 
certain  parties  who  entered  his  house  to  commit  this 
crime,  beating  him  when  he  protested.  Even  in  the 
most  sacred  duties  due  to  the  dead,  men  were  proving 
themselves  to  be  unmoved  either  by  superstition  or 
religion,  for  Melos  is  forced  to  complain  that  altho 
he  has  paid  Serapion  and  Silvanus  for  removing  his 
brother's  dead  body,  instead  of  this  they  have  only 
removed  his  effects.  The  civil  courts  were  known  to 
be  flagrantly  guilty  of  receiving  bribes,  but  the  military 
courts  were  worse,  and  it  became  so  notorious  that  men 

'"  See  especially  Archiv  fiir  Papyriisforsclnmg,  Wilcken,  I,  57-65. 


74       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

were  getting  unjust  vengeance  upon  their  enemies  in 
this  way  that  in  a.d.  307  the  Prefect  of  the  Oxyrhyn- 
chus  nome  was  forced  to  threaten  confiscation  of  prop- 
erty in  the  case  of  any  person  appeahng  from  the  civil 
to  the  military  tribunals. 

More  and  more  after  the  second  century  the  Fayum 
became  isolated  from  the  outside  world.  It  had  never 
been  on  the  trade  route  and  now  it  lost  its  little  place 
in  the  route  of  tourists.  Tourists  during  the  first  two 
centuries  of  our  era  came  in  multitudes  from  all  lands 
into  the  Delta,  scratching  their  names  on  the  Great 
Pyramid,  gaping  at  the  strange  Apis  ceremonies  at 
Memphis,  and  making  votive  offerings  at  Naucratis — 
as  Herodotus  is  just  proved  to  have  done.^^ 

Doubtless  quite  often  these  tourists  would  visit  the 
edge  of  the  Fayum  to  see  the  Hawara  Pyramid  and 
Labyrinth,  and  possibly  to  visit  the  sacred  crocodile 
at  Arsinoe  on  their  way  to  the  more  fashionable  "show 
places"  at  Thebes  and  beyond;  but  few,  even  then, 
would  go,  as  Germanicus  did,  to  Lake  Moeris,  and 
fewer  still  would  travel  into  the  Fayum. 

But  toward  the  end  of  the  second  century,  because 
of  internal  and  external  troubles,  the  general  tourist 
travel,  even  in  the  Delta,  stopt  abruptly,  and  even 
such  occasional  visits  to  the  Fayum  must  have  ceased; 
while  the  towns  of  Upper  Egypt,  presumably  including 
Oxyrhynchus,  were  rendered  unsafe  for  peaceful  travel 
for  a  considerable  period  thereafter  because  of  raids 
of  tribes  dwelling  farther  up  the  Nile.^^ 

These  facts  should  be  borne  in  mind  in  estimating 
the  value  of  our  later  conclusions  concerning  the  proven- 

^  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  Vol.  XXV,  116. 

"  Cf.  J.  G.  Milne,  Journal  of  Egyptian  Archaeology,  April,   1916,  pp. 
76-79. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  75 

ance   of   the   newly   discovered    New    Testaments   and 
other  papyri  touching  the  Hfe  of  the  early  Christians. 

(2)    THE   COMMON    LIFE   OF  SOME  EGYPTIAN   TOWNS    IN 

THE    FIRST    CENTURY    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN 

ERA,   AND    LATER 

Standing  to-day  among  the  ruined  buildings  of  any 
one  of  these  ancient  Egyptian  villages,  an  archeologist 
who  possesses  a  spark  of  the  historic  imagination  ought 
to  be  able,  with  the  help  of  the  many  funereal  and  other 
inscriptions,  to  reconstruct  a  good  portion  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  place. 

Unfortunately,  few  students  of  the  ancient  past  pos- 
sess this  rare  gift;  yet,  confessing  our  limitations,  we 
will  attempt  to  give  now,  not  an  imaginary  picture, 
but  the  real  life  history  of  one  or  two  of  the  most 
conspicuous  of  these  Egyptian  towns  during  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era.^^ 

Life  in  Socnopaei  Nesus  in  the  Apostolic  Era 

Socnopaei  Nesus  is  the  name  of  the  village  with 
which  we  shall  first  concern  ourselves.  It  is  an  island 
town  situated  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  the  Fayum, 
and  represents  probably  the  most  populous  city  of  that 
most  fertile  part  of  Egypt  from  the  first  to  the  third 
century. 

This  town,  together  with  Karanis,  Philadelphia, 
and  several  others  that  are  well  known,  were  on  the 
northern   border   of   Lake   Moeris,   while   Alexandrou 

"  The  chief  authorities  upon  which  we  depend  for  our  facts  will  be 
Dr.  Carl  Wessely — Aus  der  Welt  der  Papyri  (1914)  ;  the  Catalog  of  the 
Greek  Papyri  in  John  Ryland's  Library.  Vol.  II.  (1915)  ;  and  scattered 
texts  found  among  the  Greek  Papyri  in  the  British  Museum,  Vol.  II. 
(1898). 


76      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Nesus,  Magaidus,  and  many  more  were  on  the  southern 
border.    Oxyrhynchus  lay  some  miles  farther  south. 

Socnopaei  Nesus  was  a  town  dedicated  to  the  croco- 
dile-headed god,  and  boasted  a  temple  so  famous  that 
branch  temples  were  established  in  various  cities,  for 
example  at  Arsinoe.  The  chapel  possest  a  holy  of 
holies  decked  with  gold,  and  the  statues  of  the  god 
were  made  of  the  richest  metals.  The  sacrifice  and  in- 
cense, the  sprinkling  of  the  holy  of  holies  with  sacred 
water,  and  the  ceremony  of  lighting  the  sanctuary 
lights  were  as  elaborate  as  in  Herod's  temple  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  prayers  said  were  doubtless  as  carefully 
prepared.  The  life  of  the  priests  has  been  opened  to 
us  quite  fully.  They  had  no  easy  life.  One  class  of 
priests  had  to  master  an  entire  division  of  literature  in 
order  to  determine  what  was  ceremonially  pure  and 
impure,  while  another  priestly  caste  was  expected  to 
know  fully  the  four  books  of  Hermes.  The  administra- 
tion of  the  temple  was  no  small  matter.  One  hundred 
and  fifty-five  annual  feast  days  are  mentioned  in  the 
festival  calendar  of  the  god,  together  with  the  minute 
specifications  of  requirements,  financial  and  otherwise, 
for  each  occasion.  The  budget  of  the  priests  which  has 
come  down  to  us  is  of  distinct  interest.  The  prophet 
of  the  crocodile-headed  god  could  draw  an  order  upon 
the  temple  treasury  for  344  drachmae  and  have  it  hon- 
ored. The  total  expenditure  for  a  year  was  over 
11,000  drachmae  besides  1,200  artibae  of  wheat,  2,000 
measures  of  oil,  and  forty  jugs  of  wine.  Part  of  this 
expenditure  was  paid  to  the  Roman  government;  for 
not  only  was  the  temple  compelled  to  pay  a  certain 
annual  tax  because  it  was  a  place  of  worship,  but 
government  officers  were  constantly  making  an  inven- 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  -^-j 

tory  of  the  votive  ofiferings  and  taxing  each  small  gift, 
even  down  to  the  silver-plated  handles  of  the  temple 
censers  and  the  iron  pans  of  the  temple  kitchen. 

But  no  institution  could  pay  taxes  easier  than  the 
temple.  As  one  has  said,  "If  the  god  is  a  landowner, 
he  should  also  pay  taxes" — and  the  god  was  a  land- 
owner. The  temple  of  Edfu,  as  we  know,  possest 
nearly  a  square  mile  of  fruitful  land  besides  other 
revenues  from  manufactures  of  all  sorts — linen,  felt, 
etc.  So  at  Socnopaei  Nesus  the  temple  had  a  brewery 
which  must  have  been  extensive,  as  the  tax  amounted 
to  more  than  200  drachmae;  while  its  fishing  industry 
must  have  been  of  considerable  value,  since  the  tax 
amounted  one  year  to  over  120  drachmae,  and  the  right 
to  pickle  fish  was  taxed  additionally.  The  priestly 
lands  and  houses  were  also  taxed,  and  that  these  houses 
were  the  best  in  the  city  and  situated  in  the  finest  loca- 
tion is  perfectly  evident  from  the  court  records.  In 
one  will  a  priestess  gives  to  her  daughter  two  "three- 
story  houses  with  all  their  appurtenances" — one  of 
these  being  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  house  of  Gallio 
and  on  the  west  by  the  Royal  Highway. 

The  temple  offerings  were  not  wholly  voluntary. 
The  people  were  taxed  according  to  their  ability  and 
sometimes  the  civil  officers  took  part  in  collecting  the 
temple  dues.  If  it  had  not  been  for  these  dues  the 
temple  could  not  have  carried  on  its  work.  Even  as 
it  was,  the  subordinate  priests  had  a  hard  economic 
problem,  and  were  compelled  to  farm  or  to  train  camels 
in  order  to  make  ends  meet.  Quarrels  among  the 
priests  as  well  as  dishonesty  seem  to  have  been  com- 
mon. In  one  famous  trial  which  took  place  a.d.  13, 
Nestaephis  and  Satabous  accuse  each  other  of  stealing 


/S       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

mortar  out  of  the  mill  and  brick  belonging  to  the 
temple,  and  of  manufacturing  oil  while  evading  the 
tax — Satabous  even  being  accused  of  stealing  the  very 
lot  on  which  he  had  built  his  house.  It  is  difficult  to 
tell  the  right  and  wrong  of  this  legal  contest;  but  we 
know  that  finally  Satabous  paid  to  the  Roman  official 
one-third  of  the  value  of  his  property  in  order  to  be 
left  in  possession,  tho  the  evidence  seemed  to  show 
that  he  had  bought  it  from  a  higher  priest  or  prophet 
and  might  not  have  been  personally  to  blame. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  first  century  the 
priesthood  had  fallen  low  in  Egypt.  There  was  prob- 
ably no  priest  caste,  for  altho  a  son  usually  followed 
his  father  into  the  priesthood,  yet  any  boy  who  could 
pass  the  physical  and  ceremonial  examination  and  pay 
the  initiation  dues  could  become  a  priest.^^^ 

The  higher  priestly  offices  were  purchased  from 
Rome  very  much  as  the  Sadducees  purchased  the  priestly 
offices  in  the  Jewish  temple.  The  Egyptians  were  so  relig- 
ious that  the  priesthood,  tho  generally  quite  ignorant, 
must  have  had  a  strong  influence.  In  all  the  Fayum  towns* 
the  chief  streets  were  named  after  warriors  or  gods, 
tho  Market  Street  and  other  familiar  modern  titles 
were  common. 

A  magnificent  sacred  street  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  long  was  the  peculiar  pride,  not  only  of  the  temple 
in  Socnopaei  Nesus,  but  of  the  whole  country  round 
about. 

Every  fourteen  years  a  general  house-to-house 
canvass  was  made  in  the  interest  of  the  government 
census.  One  of  the  census  reports  taken  by  Herak- 
leides  in  this  town  shows  173  males  living  in  his  district 

"•So  Wessely;  but  Grenfell  and  Hunt  are  against  this. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  79 

and  the  amount  of  their  tax.  Among  these,  four  for- 
eigners appear,  three  from  Italy,  and  one  from  India. 
There  are  in  this  district  thirteen  men  over  sixty  years 
old,  who  therefore  are  excused  from  the  tax.  But 
very  few  are  excused,  and  the  investigation  is  rigid. 
Not  only  are  the  manufacturers  on  this  street,  and  the 
private  citizens  taxed  heavily,  but  a  list  of  slaves  and 
freedmen  is  given,  each  being  taxed  according  to  the 
social  position  of  his  master  or  mistress.  It  is  notice- 
able that  a  difference  in  the  tax  rate  is  made  in  favor 
of  Fayum  citizens  as  against  those  who  come  from 
Rome  or  Alexandria. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  a  Jewish  quarter  at  Socno- 
paei  Nesus  in  the  first  century  of  our  era.  It  has  long 
been  known  that  many  Jews  lived  in  the  Delta  in  Egypt 
and  recently  new  traces  of  these  have  been  found  (e.g., 
Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  Quarterly  Statement,  1914, 
p.  43) ;  but  it  is  now  certain  that  as  early  as  the  third 
century  B.C.,  there  was  a  Jewish  colony  in  the  Fayum 
living  in  a  town  called  Samaria.  Even  then  the  Jews 
were  bankers,  tax-gatherers  and  police-officers,  and  were 
enjoying  the  special  prosperity  which  had  come  to  them 
in  Egypt  through  Alexander's  favor.  The  entire  fourth 
district  in  Alexandria  was  a  Jewish  quarter,  and  in 
many  of  the  Fayum  towns  they  doubtless  had  houses 
of  prayer  as  at  Atribis,  and  a  special  ghetto  as  at 
Socnopaei  Nesus.  It  need  not  surprize  us,  therefore,  to 
find  that  Herakleides,  as  the  inspector  of  a  ward  (a.d. 
72),  devotes  an  entire  section  of  his  report  to  these 
Jews  of  Socnopaei  Nesus.  The  heading  of  his  official 
report — which  was  issued  while  "St.  John  the  pres- 
byter" was  still  alive — reads  as  follows: 


8o      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"The  Report  of  Herakleides,  Inspector  of  The  District  of 
Apollonia  Parembole,  with  Reference  to  Special  Taxation  and 
Census  of  the  Jews." 

He  mentions  the  ages  of  men,  women,  and  children, 
and  gives  their  ancestry  back  to  the  third  generation. 
In  each  house  he  gives  the  hst  of  males  of  taxable  age, 
together  with  the  names  of  the  children  and  women. 
Even  in  the  case  of  children  but  one  year  of  age,  he 
gives  the  names  of  the  mother,  father,  and  grand- 
fathers.    Sample  paragraphs  from  his  report  read: 

"Tryphania,  granddaughter  of  Kales,  mother  of  Dosarion,  6i 
years  of  age,  exempt  from  taxation." 

"Dosarion,  daughter  of  Jacob  and  granddaughter  of  Jacob, 
mother  of  Sambus,  wife  of  Simon;  22  years  of  age,  etc." 

Each  family  had  to  pay  a  little  over  eight  drachmae 
as  a  "home"  tax,  and  added  to  this  was  the  extra  tax 
of  15  drachmae  for  the  first  registration.  The  exces- 
sive pedantry  seen  in  these  reports  and  the  fact  that 
the  year  of  birth,  age,  and  relationship  had  to  be  re- 
peated with  the  same  scrupulous  minuteness  each  year, 
prove  the  severity  of  the  government  oversight. 

From  other  neighboring  places  other  equally  re- 
markable reports  concerning  the  Jewish  population  of 
the  Apostolic  Age  have  come  to  us.  An  ostrakon  from 
Apollinopolis  Magna  has  along  side  of  such  old-fash- 
ioned Hebrew  names  as  Jacob  and  Simon  certain  Greek 
appellatives  which  seem  to  have  been  very  popular 
among  the  Jews,  such  as  Antipater,  Demas,  Jason,  etc. 
Every  one  will  at  once  recognize  these  as  Bible  names. 

The  most  remarkable  series  of  inscriptions  which  has 
appeared  from  this  site^^"  consists  of  twenty  ostraka  con- 
cerning Jews  who  lived  in  the  first  century,  six  of  whom 

^^^  Sttidien  cur  Palccographie  und  Papyruskunde  von  Dr.  C.  Wessely, 
Leipzig,  1913. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  8i 

were  named  Jesus,  one  Didymus  and  another  Theophilus. 
It  is  indeed  a  startling  thing  to  read  these  BibHcal  names 
upon  inscriptions  written  during  the  apostoHc  age. 
Altho  the  subject  matter  may  not  be  otherwise  interest- 
ing, nevertheless  every  Christian  must  look  with  vital 
interest  mingled  with  surprize  at  such  records  as  these : 

"Sambathion  and  Jesus  Ch^oovg)  son  of  Papias,  listed  in  the 
census  taken  in  the  twentieth  year  of  the  Lord  (xov  xuqiov) 
Domitian  ....  drachmae." 

"Census  list  of  a  block  of  houses  belonging  to of  the 

Jews drachmae." 

"Sambathion  and  Jesus,  son  of  Papias,  Jews year  of 

our  Lord  Trajan drachmae."  -^° 

But  the  population  of  Socnopaei  Nesus  did  not  con- 
sist chiefly  of  Jews,  and  we  turn  to  the  activities  of 
these  other  contemporaries  of  the  apostles  with  keen 
anticipation.  Here  are  the  certificate  of  sale  of  a  house, 
November  20,  a.d.  i  i  ,  written  in  Greek  and  demotic,  and 
a  few  years  later  the  application  by  four  fullers,  who  are 
descendants  of  the  old  Persian  settlers,  for  the  lease  of 
a  double  laundry  carried  on  at  Socnopaei  Nesus  and 
Nilopolis  by  Satabous,  240  drachmae  being  paid  for  the 
current  year.  In  a.d.  33  Tesenouphis,  son  of  Demas, 
makes  a  loan  of  money,  taking  ample  security,  while  at 
about  the  same  time  (a.d.  14-37),  ^^  old  soldier  of  the 
third  legion  makes  a  repayment  of  a  loan,  the  receipt 
for  which  has  been  faithfully  preserved  to  us  for  nearly 
two  thousand  years.  In  a.d.  28,  in  the  second  year  of 
"Tiberius  Csesar  Sebastus,  the  god,  son  of  the  god," 
a  divorce  appears  in  which  the  decision  of  the  court 

'^^  The  surprize  at  finding  these  pre-Christian  "Jesus"  records  vanishes 
when  we  remember  that  the  nime  Jesus  is  only  Joshua  in  a  Greek  form 
and  that  Jesus  b.  Perahyah,  who  it  is  said  learned  magic  in  Egypt,  at  the 
end  of  the  second  century  B.C.,  was  one  of  the  most  celebrated  Jews  of  his 
time. 


82       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

is  approved  by  both  the  parties  to  the  separation,  ahho 
the  wife  receives,  as  part  of  the  decree,  a  house  *'buih 
with  beams  and  doors  and  repeated  in  three  stages,"  at 
the  east  end  of  the  town  on  the  street  Pharaoh;  the 
husband,  Pa-anhuri,  seeming  to  have  been  glad  to 
obtain  the  decree  even  by  paying  thus  hberally  to  get 
it.  In  this  same  year  Herieus  sells  Hisarous  two  out 
of  five  parts  of  a  two-storied  house  and  court,  and  a 
little  later  Stotoatis  sells  Apunchis  two  of  his  five  shares 
in  a  two-storied  house  and  court,  and  two  out  of  four 
shares  of  a  fallen  house,  as  well  as  one-twelfth  share 
in  the  ownership  of  a  mill.  In  the  former  transaction 
it  is  interesting  to  note  that  neither  woman  was  able  to 
write,  so  that  their  sons  signed  the  document  in  their 
stead;  while  in  both  contracts  there  is  a  striking  indica- 
tion that  apartment  houses  and  the  corporate  owner- 
ship of  buildings  were  not  unknown  in  the  apostolic 
era. 

Many  other  documents  prove  that  fliats  are  not 
merely  a  modern  iniquity.^^*^  In  the  year  a.d.  82,  Tesen- 
ouphis  sells  to  Panephimmis,  son  of  Pame,  two- 
fifteenths  of  a  house  and  courtyard,  and  a  month  or  two 
later  this  same  Panephimmis  buys  from  Papeis  and 
Pasokis  one-sixth  (or  one-tenth)  of  a  house  and  yard.  A 
little  later  (a.d.  71)  Thasis  sells  to  her  son-in-law  one- 
fourth  part  of  a  two-storied  "priest's  chamber  and 
yard." 

*''^The  use  of  modern  terminology  must  not,  however,  blind  the  reader 
to  the  radical  difference  between  oriental  and  western  conditions.  The 
"apartment  houses"  and  "flats"  were  not  buildings  erected  as  investments, 
but  were  undoubtedly  communal  houses.  It  is  still  very  common  in 
Egypt  among  the  better  class  natives  to  find  the  grandfather,  father,  and 
most  of  the  married  sons  and  grandsons  living,  with  their  families,  in 
separate  rooms  of  the  same  house.  So  the  "branch  laundries"  must  be 
visualized  as  merely  a  central  wash  house  where  the  towels  of  the  public 
baths  from  two  nearby  villages  were  washed. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  83 

The  account  book  of  one  state  granary  has  been  pre- 
served from  the  first  century  B.C.,  showing  the  amount 
of  seed  corn  loaned  on  account  to  small  farmers;  and 
many  documents  of  the  first  and  second  century  B.C. 
show  the  monopolies  upon  the  sale  of  woolen  goods  by 
the  Crown,  as  well  as  upon  bricks,  eggs,  and  probably 
natron  and  the  public  baths.  These  public  baths  must 
have  been  an  important  institution,  for  in  a  contract 
dated  a.d.  42,  a  man  receives  2,000  drachmae  to  furnish 
firewood  for  one  year  for  the  baths  connected  with  the 
gymnasium.  While  the  trade  guilds  were  not  as  com- 
mon in  Roman  Africa  as  in  Italy,  and  while  a  general 
organization  by  trades  and  occupations  was  to  be 
found  in  only  a  few  cities  of  the  East,  as  in  Rome  and 
Pompeii  or  Philadelphia  or  Thyatira,  yet  signs  of  these 
trade  unions  meet  us  in  many  papyri.  The  earliest 
inscription  relating  to  a  trade  guild  was  put  out  by  an 
association  of  foreign  cooks  ^^^  in  Sardinia.  These 
guilds  of  almost  every  trade  and  profession  were  prob- 
ably to  be  found  in  every  large  town  of  the  first  century, 
organized  not  so  much  for  self-protection  as  for  social 
recreation  and  enjoyment  and  to  insure  to  each  member 
a  decent  burial.  They  were  not  charitable  societies  nor 
mutual  benefit  insurance  associations,  tho  occasionally 
a  loan  is  mentioned  in  the  papyri  and  mutual  aid  was 
actually  given  on  some  occasions.  The  early  Christians 
made  use  of  these  funeral  associations  and  trade 
brotherhoods  in  order  to  organize  their  forces,  and  it 
is  for  this  reason,  doubtless,  that  the  Emperor  Valerian 
made  such  furious  attacks  uoon  these  guilds  (a.d.  275).^* 

^^  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum,  XI,  3078. 

"  See   for   further  particulars  concerning  these  "Unions,"  Encyclopce- 
dia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  VI.,  219#. 


84      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

At  Socnopaei  Nesus,  in  the  first  century,  we  see  the 
primitive  working  of  this  institution.  In  a.d.  14-37, 
e.g.,  the  president  and  secretary  of  the  guild  of  weav- 
ers, acting  for  the  guild,  became  sureties  for  five  weavers 
against  whom  a  court  proceeding  is  pending.  The  fullers 
must  have  had  a  large  association,  for  we  learn  that 
the  office  of  superintendent  of  this  industry  was  farmed 
out  in  this  town  as  the  weaving  business  was  farmed 
out  in  Archelais  and  the  manufacture  of  bricks  at 
Kerkethoeus,  the  retailing  of  oil  at  Heraclea,  the  gold- 
smith's industry  at  Euhemeria,  and  bird  hunting  in  an- 
other district.  The  weavers,  too,  must  have  done  a  good 
business  here,  for  in  a  badly  written  and  ill-spelled 
receipt  issued  by  the  "receivers  of  public  clothing" 
(a.d.  128),  nineteen  tunics  and  five  cloaks  are  men- 
tioned. These  were,  we  discover,  military  cloaks 
bought  for  soldiers  serving  in  India,  and  this  was  the 
tax  levied  on  this  town  for  the  support  of  these  local 
volunteers.  That  the  weavers  could  contribute  cor- 
porately  to  pay  this  tax  is  a  new  proof  that  this  trade 
was  here  organized  into  a  guild.  This  receipt  reads  as 
follows : 

"We,  Dionysius  son  of  Socrates,  and  the  associate  collectors  of 
public  clothing  for  the  Guards,  have  received  from  the  weavers  of 
the  village  of  Socnopaei  Nesus  nineteen.  .  .  .  tunics  .  .  .  and 
for  the  needs  of  the  soldiers  serving  in  India  five  white  cloaks. 
The  thirteenth  year  of  the  Emperor  Caesar  Trajanus.  .  .  . 
(in  another  hand)  Received  by  Diogenes." 

It  is  evident  that  taxes  are  no  modern  invention. 
In  the  days  of  Jesus  everything  and  everybody  was 
taxed.  The  custom  house  receipts  from  Socnopaei 
Nesus  show  that  there  was  a  heavy  rate  upon  both 
exports  and  imports,  while  individual  merchants  and 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  85 

tradesmen  of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  the  boatmen  who 
carried  the  god's  images  in  ceremonial  processions, 
had  to  pay  heavily  for  the  business.  Taxes  on  land 
and  farm  stock,  on  goats  and  pigs  of  the  temple,  and 
especially  on  the  temple  pigeon  cotes — in  fact  upon 
every  item  of  wealth  or  industry — meet  us  in  every  pile 
of  ancient  documents  excavated.  The  day  book  of  one 
of  the  revenue  officials  at  Oxyrhynchus  has  come  to  us, 
and  many  official  reports  from  Socnopaei  Nesus. 

A  very  heavy  force  of  collectors  and  government 
police  must  have  been  constantly  maintained  in  every 
town.  The  chief  of  police  had  a  rank  (^XQaxr{y6g) 
equal  to  the  modern  "general"  or  Bey,  and  his  duties 
and  temptations  to  ''graft"  were  quite  as  numerous  as 
now,  as  we  know  from  a  "politician's  drawer"  pre- 
served from  the  Arsinoite  nome  and  from  innumerable 
references  in  many  documents.  We  know,  for  example 
(Greek  Papyri  in  the  British  Museum,  II:  cccvi),  that 
Stotoetis,  of  Heraclea,  August  28,  a.d.  145,  sold  one- 
third  of  his  office  of  tax  collector  for  two  years  to 
Satarnilus  for  252  drachmae  a  year.  From  the  police 
records  of  a  neighboring  village  (Euhemeria)  the  fol- 
lowing are  selected  as  typical  of  the  whole : 

A.D.  28 — While  the  wife  and  mother  of  Hippalus 
were  bathing  in  the  public  baths,  two  men  and  two 
women  attacked  them,  beating  them  badly  and  stealing 
a  gold  earring,  etc. 

A.D.  29 — Senthus,  identified  by  a  scar  on  his  left 
wrist,  presents  information  against  Papantos,  a  former 
brewer,  for  breaking  into  his  house  "by  way  of  the  beer 
shop  on  the  north,"  and  stealing  considerable  silver,  a 
clock,  shovel,  basket  of  bread  containing  fifty  loaves, 
two  tin  drinking-cups,  etc. 


86      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

A.D.  30 — A  woman  worker  at  an  oil  mill  ran  off 
with  the  cloak  of  the  manager  and  forty  silver 
drachmae — so  afifirms  Hatres,  identified  by  "a  scar  on 
the  middle  of  his  forehead." 

A.D.  34 — Lysanias  is  notified  of  the  theft  of  thirty 
bundles  of  hay  which  had  been  "boldly  carried  away  on 
donkeys  by  the  thief." 

A.D.  36 — Orsenouphis  is  caught  in  the  act  of  steal- 
ing at  night  five  rakes,  six  hay  sickles,  fifteen  measures 
of  wool,  etc.  Another  charge  in  this  same  year  is  that 
of  stealing  a  pig  "worth  eight  drachmae." 

A.D.  37 — A  similar  charge  was  made  when  six 
hundred  bundles  of  hay  were  thus  carried  off. 

A.D.  38 — Ision,  slave  of  Chaeremon,  who  had  loaned 
some  money  to  another  man,  was  beaten  seriously  by 
him  w^hen  he  spoke  to  him  of  the  debt.  In  this  same 
year,  Dictas  complains  of  Chaeremon,  a  former  brewer 
employed  by  him,  who  had  beaten  and  robbed  Artemi- 
dorus,  the  man  put  in  his  place  when  he  had  been  dis- 
charged. 

A.D.  40 — A  woman  burglar  entered  a  house,  beat 
the  owner's  daughter  who  was  at  home,  tore  her  purple 
tunic,  and  carried  off  a  hundred  drachmae. 

Some  official  documents  from  Socnopaei  Nesus  are 
bi-lingual  (demotic-Greek),  and  many  private  letters  in 
Greek  exist,  showing  that  the  population  was  inter- 
ested in  the  same  things  as  interest  the  common  people 
to-day,  and  that  they  were  writing  freely  about  these 
daily  happenings.  We  give  a  typical  instance  dating 
between  a.d.  38  and  40: 

Ammonius  to  his  dearest  Aphrodisius,  greeting. 

"I  wrote  a  letter  to  the  herdsman  Heracleus  that  he  should 
supply  you  with  a  donkey,  and  I  bade  Ophelion  also  to  supply  you 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  87 

with  another,  and  to  send  me  the  loaves.  ...  As  to  the  pigs'fod- 
der  and  the  rest  of  the  price  for  the  hay,  make  provision  until  I 
come.  Urge  your  wife  from  me  to  look  after  the  pigs,  and  do  you 
also  take  care  of  the  calf.  Be  sure  and  send  me  the  loaves  and  the 
relish.  .  .  .  Good-by." 

A  letter  written  to  Ammonius  by  this  same  agent 
(a.d.  40)  shows  the  intimate  relation  at  this  time  be- 
tween employer  and  employed  in  these  little  country 
towns. 

"I  will  send  the  donkeys  without  fail.  Please  do  your  utmost 
to  procure  me  the  unguent  of  lentils ;  do  not  neglect  this  last.  We 
think  you  have  become  all  at  once  estranged  toward  us." 

Innumerable  private  letters,  some  of  them  written 
in  great  haste,  about  the  pickling  of  olives,  the  pressing 
of  grapes,  the  care  of  children,  the  building  of  new 
houses,  and  all  the  minute  details  of  business  have  now 
come  into  our  hands  from  men  who  lived  at  the  very 
time  when  Luke  was  writing  the  Acts  and  while  the 
other  literature  of  the  New  Testament  was  being  pro- 
duced. One  man  gives  an  intensely  interesting  descrip- 
tion of  his  trip  up  the  Nile,  and  another  describes  the 
new  house  which  the  carpenters  were  just  finishing.  It 
must  have  been  an  especially  fine  house  for  a  country 
village  of  that  day,  for  he  mentions  the  "smaller  and 
larger  dining-rooms,"  and  states  that  the  "second  water 
refrigerator  is  to  be  roofed  to-morrow."  These  letters 
constantly  mention  the  names  of  the  children  of  the  cor- 
respondents, and  contain  many  reproaches  because  of  the 
failure  of  their  friends  tq  write  oftener. 

There  seems  to  be  no  perceptible  difference  between 
the  style  of  the  private  letters  from  the  first  to  the 
early  fourth  century,  but  there  are  remarks  made  occa- 
sionally  which   throw   a  brilliant   light   on   the   great 


88       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

change  in  financial  conditions.  The  fact  that  a  brother 
writing  to  his  sister  in  the  third  century  remarks  that 
"everything  has  risen  in  price"  might  not  in  itself 
prove  much,  but  there  is  convincing  corroborative  evi- 
dence of  the  truth  of  this  complaint.  February  6,  a.d. 
149,  a  woman  at  Socnopaei  Nesus  wants  money  so  much 
that  she  borrows  1,200  drachmae  at  i  per  cent,  a 
month,  and  at  Oxyrhynchus  (a.d.  381)  a  man  goes 
surety  for  a  friend  who  has  borrowed  42,000,000  de- 
narii. Of  course  these  documents  are  not  in  themselves 
conclusive,  for  there  are  always  people  in  every  age 
who  will  give  any  kind  of  interest  for  ready  cash,  and 
so  far  as  borrowing  42,000,000  "shillings"  or  going 
security  for  the  man  who  has  done  this,  there  are  some 
examples  in  modern  America  of  even  greater  extrava- 
gance and  folly.  But  the  cumulative  evidence  is  abso- 
lutely convincing  that  the  whole  district  of  the  Fayum 
suffered  a  serious  collapse  in  the  third  century,  and 
that  by  the  early  fourth  century  the  money  of  Egypt, 
as  elsewhere,  had  become  almost  as  valueless  as  the 
wild-cat  issues  of  certain  banks  in  America  about  a 
century  ago.  This  may  not  seem  to  be  a  matter  of 
much  concern  to  the  reader,  but  as  we  shall  see  it  may 
have  some  little  bearing,  at  least,  upon  the  value  of  the 
New  Testament  texts  which  come  to  us  from  this  district 
in  the  third  or  fourth  century. 

Life  in  Oxyrhynchus  in  the  Early  Christian  Period 

Oxyrhynchus  is  to  us  the  most  important  of  the  old 
Egyptian  towns,  because  it  is  from  this  site  that  almost 
all  of  our  ancient  fragments  of  the  newly  discovered 
New  Testaments  have  come.     Its  life  stor}^  ought  to 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  89 

be  at  least  equal  in  thrilling  interest  to  that  found  in 
the  "Anthology  of  Spoon  River." 

Oxyrhynchus  (Behnesa)  was  located  on  the  Bahr 
Yusuf,  the  leading  canal  of  the  Fayum,  about  ten  miles 
from  the  Nile  and  about  two  hundred  and  sixty  miles 
from  Alexandria.  A  number  of  granite  columns  and 
shattered  temple  altars  show  the  importance  of  this 
city  in  early  times,  tho  this  importance  dwindled 
greatly  in  the  third  century  of  our  era.  Indications  of 
this  partial  collapse  of  the  business  life  of  the  city  may 
be  found  in  the  proportion  of  the  papyri  that  have  come 
to  us  from  the  various  eras,  e.g.,  of  the  960  dated  texts 
published  in  the  eleven  volumes  of  the  Oxyrhynchus 
papyri,  over  740  belong  to  the  first  three  Christian  cen- 
turies, a  trifle  less  than  a  hundred  certainly  belong  to 
the  fourth  century;  and  of  the  dated  fourth  century gtexts 
only  twenty  come  from  the  seventy-five  years  following 
the  Council  of  Nice  (325).  In  the  fifth  century  the 
city  began  to  recover  its  lost  activity,  the  town  and 
the  desert  around  it  being  filled  with  monks  and  nuns, 
and  by  the  sixth  century  it  seems  to  have  fully  regained 
its  old  prosperity  and  to  have  been  regarded  as  one  of 
the  leading  Christian  cities  of  Egypt. 

Oxyrhynchus  was  a  self-governing  city,  boasting 
several  "senators"  and  other  civil  dignitaries,  and  was 
the  chief  town  of  the  nome.  This  did  not  mean,  of 
course,  that  it  was  ever  a  large  and  wealthy  city  in 
the  modern  or  even  in  the  Alexandrian  sense;  but  it 
had  corn  mills  and  bakeries  with  a  "superintendent  of 
food  supplies"  constantly  on  duty  to  see  that  people 
could  get  bread  at  a  moderate  price;  it  must  have  had 
a  weekly  market  and  large  bazaar,  and  was  probably 
in  almost  all  respects  very  like  the  modern   Medinet 


90      THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

el-Fayum  or  any  other  large   Egyptian   town   that   is 
away  from  the  ordinary  tourist  route. 

The  amusements  of  the  town  never  ceased  at  any 
era,  the  gymnastic  games  even  in  the  fourth  century 
being  vastly  popular,  the  victors  being  granted  special 
privileges  by  the  municipality.  Doubtless,  in  Oxyrhyn- 
chus,  just  as  in  Rome,  the  lower  classes  were  kept  in 
subjection  and  made  to  forget  their  poverty  and  their 
wrongs  by  these  games  provided  at  senatorial  or  gov- 
ernment expense.  The  placards  yet. in  existence  show 
that  these  exercises  were  regarded  as  part  of  the 
ancient  ''tradition"  of  the  place.  The  excitement  inci- 
dent to  such  occasions  is  well  illustrated  from  some 
texts  of  the  sixth  century  when,  evidently  through  the 
influence  of  Christianity,  horse  racing  had  taken  the 
place  of  the  brutal  gladiatorial  shows.  From  these 
contemporary  accounts  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  the 
Derby  never  created  more  excitement  than  these  races 
did. 

The  whole  population  was  divided  into  two  factions, 
called  the  Blues  and  the  Greens,  each  shouting,  and 
presumably  betting,  on  their  own  horses.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  notice  that  each  side  had  a  "starter"  and 
provided  certain  funds  for  maintaining  their  favorite 
stud. 

The  public  baths  also  always  continued  to  be  kept 
up  at  some  expense,  fifty  talents  of  silver  being  spent 
in  repairs  (a.d.  303),  and  10,000  denarii  being  ex- 
pended in  painting  some  of  these  baths  a  little  later 
(a.d.  316) ;  while  twenty  years  later  an  additional 
wooden  bath  was  built.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  10,000 
denarii  at  that  date  did  not  mean  a  very  large  amount 
of  silver,  and  other  texts  show  conclusively  the  com- 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  91 

parative  poverty  of  the  place.  Even"  the  amusements 
may  not  have  represented  any  great  extravagance,  as 
a  contract  for  the  hire  of  two  dancing  girls  by  the 
president  of  the  town  in  the  third  century  shows  that 
they  were  paid  only  thirty-six  drachmae  a  day. 

The  official  records  and  private  correspondence  in 
this  city  in  the  first  and  adjoining  centuries  are  so 
personal  and  minute  that  one  almost  feels  ashamed  to 
repeat  some  of  the  disclosures  of  human  frailty  and 
business  complications  coming  from  this  far-away 
country  town.  One  father,  in  a  public  placard,  thrashes 
his  son  Castor  for  "riotous  living,"  and  warns  the  com- 
munity to  lend  him  no  money;  while  a  little  later  Tro- 
phimus  writes  to  his  father  a  letter  in  the  most  injured 
tone  because  his  parent  had  suggested  that  he  was 
"boastful"  and  was  wasting  his  money  on  a  paramour 
instead  of  sending  it  home.  A  mother  writing  to  her 
husband  about  a  much-loved  boy  of  quite  dififerent 
character,  says,  "It  quite  upset  him  for  you  to  go  away 
and  leave  him  behind."  How  close  it  brings  us  to  the 
apostolic  age  to  read  in  these  newly  discovered  papyri 
the  horoscope  of  a  man  born  10  p.m.  September  28  (a.d. 
15) ;  of  the  hire  of  a  mill  (a.d.  17) ;  of  the  bail  offered 
for  a  prisoner  (a.d.  28) ;  of  a  promise  to  attend  court 
(a.d.  59) ;  or  of  a  complaint  against  a  husband  (a.d.  20- 
50),  by  Syra,  who  says  her  husband  squandered  her 
dowry,  mistreated  her,  and  finally  left  her  wholly 
without  support.  Zois  (a.d.  30)  writes  about  the 
bread  she  has  ordered  but  not  received;  in  another 
first  century  text  we  find  made  out  in  due  form  the 
valuation  of  a  bakery;  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in 
some  other  business  account  books,  tho  not  in  this,  a 
method   is   used   much   like   our   own    "double   entrv." 


92       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

One  man  swears  "by  Qesar"  that  he  does  not  know  of 
any  extortion  on  the  part  of  a  soldier  mentioned;  an- 
other, January  31  (a.d.  52),  makes  out  a  deed  of  sale  for 
an  ass's  colt,  while  a  death  report  is  dated  the  twelfth 
year  of  Nero,  September,  a.d.  56,  and  a  sale  of  wheat  is 
made  a.d.  81-96. 

It  makes  one  feel  that  he  is  touching  very  closely 
the  private  actions  and  common  gossip  of  that  time  to 
pick  out  from  a  blurred  papyrus  a  whispered  secret 
concerning  Pheros,  "contractor  for  the  beer  and 
nitrate  tax,"  and  about  Menches,  who  "bribed"  the 
village  to  secure  reappointment  to  his  office  of  royal 
scribe ;  or  to  read  a  private  letter  from  a  husband  to  his 
wife,  giving  directions  about  his  tools  and  "the  old 
cushion  that  is  up  in  the  dining-room" ;  or  to  read  a  love 
letter  written  a.d.  22,  in  which  the  wife  says,  "I  am  not  so 
much  as  anointing  myself  until  I  shall  hear  from  you !" 

The  temple  and  its  services  are  much  in  evidence. 
When  a  Roman  senator  visits  a  certain  temple  (first 
century)  we  have  a  private  note  from  one  priest  to  the 
other  telling  of  the  sacrifices  which  must  be  prepared 
for  the  occasion,  and  of  the  "titbits"  to  be  made  ready 
for  the  sacred  crocodiles.  It  is  evident  that  the  ancient 
Egyptians  were  even  ready  to  exploit  their  most  sacred 
religious  customs  for  the  sake  of  the  backshish. 

Here  is  a  list  of  articles  for  sacrifice  (second  cen- 
tury)— a  calf,  wine,  wafers,  garlands,  cakes,  palm 
branches,  oil,  honey,  milk;  here  is  also  a  contract  in 
which  musicians  are  engaged  for  a  five  days'  festival 
to  receive  transportation,  board,  and  140  drachmae;  and 
here  are  others  where  the  partners  in  a  pigeon-house 
arrange  for  the  division  of  the  dung;  and  here  again 
TTermogenes  gives  an  order  for  a  hundred  empty  jars 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  93 

and  *'the  wheel  of  the  machine."  Here  is  a  deed  of 
divorce  (a.d.  45)  in  which  both  husband  and  wife  are 
identified  by  scars;  and  several  law  court  records  (a.d. 
50)  in  which  it  is  charged  that  women  have  been  re- 
ceiving wages  for  nursing  foundlings  ''picked  up  from 
the  dung-hill"  after  these  children  had  died.  It  is 
noticeable  that  the  men  who  cared  for  these  cast-off 
children  are  called  here  "benefactors"  (cf.  Luke 
22:25). 

That  boys  were  boys  nineteen  centuries  ago  is 
shown  by  a  contract  of  apprenticeship  dated  a.d.  66,  in 
which  Pryphon,  who  was  born  a.d.  8,  and  was  a 
weaver  by  trade,  binds  his  son  to  a  neighboring  weaver 
for  a  small  recompense,  with  the  agreement  that  if  the 
boy  plays  truant  he  must  make  up  the  time  and  his 
father  must  in  addition  pay  forfeit  for  each  day  thus 
lost. 

It  throws  a  vivid  light  upon  the  common  super- 
stitions of  the  day  to  read  as  the  characteristic  ex- 
pression in  many  letters: 

"Above  all  I  pray  that  you  may  be  in  health,  unharmed  by 
the  evil  eye." 

Several  letters  mention  dreams  and  their  influence, 
and  one  son  is  represented  in  a  sort  of  circular  letter 
as  saying  to  his  father: 

"1  have  been  deceived  by  the  gods  trusting  in  dreams.  All 
things  are  false  and  your  gods  with  the  rest." 

From  a  mass  of  papyri  of  the  second  century  we 
select  for  mention  as  illustrating  the  conditions  of 
society  at  Oxyrhynchus  a  letter  from  a  man  of  family 
who  writes  to  the  lady  Didyme,  saying: 


94       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"Do  not  lose  heart  about  the  rent,  for  you  will  certainly  get 
it." 

In  a  will  probated  a.d.  123,  a  mother  aged  seventy- 
eight,  leaves  all  her  property  to  her  daughter  on  condi- 
tion that  she  discharge  her  debts  and  give  her  a  good 
funeral.  A  registration  of  paupers  (a.d.  149)  raises 
the  question  whether  there  could  have  been  a  "poor- 
rate"  in  Roman  Egypt  by  means  of  which  the  well-to- 
do  were  forced  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  those 
lacking  means.  A  complaint  against  a  priest  (a.d. 
159)  charges  him  with  letting  his  hair  grow  too  long 
— not  a  strange  charge,  since  short  hair  at  this  time 
must  have  been  commonly  considered  the  mark  of  a 
Christian  teacher  as  contrasted  with  the  usually  un- 
shorn locks  of  the  heathen  philosophers. 

While  the  fourth  century  texts  are,  as  we  have 
said,  few  and  generally  unimportant,  some  of  these 
show  the  terrific  financial  strain  to  which  the  country 
was  subjected  after  Diocletian  established  an  imperial 
absolutism,  blotting  out  freedom  and  making  the  spirit 
of  militarism  rampant.  Wessely  has  pointed  out  that 
while  in  a.d.  267  a  house  at  Socnopaei  Nesus  cost 
2,000  drachmae,  forty  years  later  a  mortgage  on  this 
same  house  was  taken  for  3,840,000  drachmae ;  and  that 
while  (a.d.  255)  a  measure  (about  a  peck)  of  wheat 
cost  sixteen  drachmae,  in  a.d.  314  the  same  amount  cost 
10,000  drachmae.^** 

So  at  Oxyrhynchus  in  a.d.  306  a  man  paid  720,000 
denarii  for  five  hundred  pounds  of  meat.  We  transcribe 
this  curious  document: 

From  Ptileminus  Thonius,  steward  of  Nigrius,  Greeting. 

"Measure  out  to  my  Brother  Dorotheus,  who  is  about  to  collect 

***  Wessely,  op.  cit.,  p.  73. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  95 

payments  on  my  accounts  through  Hieronichus  for  the  price  of 
500  lbs.  of  meat,  40  artebae  of  aracus,  ']2  myriads  of  denarii" 
(Oxyrhynchus  Papyri;  XI,  367). 

Two  years  later  there  is  a  record  even  more  sur- 
prizing than  this,  of  a  man's  paying  75,000  denarii  for 
a  hide.  The  rentals  of  land  about  this  time  went  up 
to  impossible  prices,  and  food  became  so  dear  that  a 
leg  of  antelope  is  recorded  as  having  been  sold  for 
50,000  drachmae  and  four  chickens  for  30,000 
drachmae  (Wessely).  Altho  wages  had  gone  up 
correspondingly — grooms  receiving  from  3,000  to  6,000 
drachmae  a  month,  even  pedagogs  receiving  almost 
as  much — yet  conditions  were  feverish  and  dangerous, 
and  fraud,  blackmail,  and  graft  w^ere  the  order  of  the 
day.'= 

From  the  first  to  the  middle  of  the  third  century 
of  our  era,  Oxyrhynchus  enjoyed  its  highest  prosper- 
ity. Even  the  classics  were  studied;  more  fragments 
of  these  ancient  works  having  been  found  here  than 
in  any  other  town.  The  city  contained  several  heathen 
temples  dedicated  to  Serapis,  Isis,  Thoeris,  etc.;  and  a 
Caesarium,  theater,  gymnasium,  capitolium,  and  a  few 
other  municipal  buildings,  besides  several  public  baths. 
There  was,  without  doubt,  a  Jewish  synagog,  and  there 
were  also  at  this  time,  as  recently  proved,  several 
Christian  churches,  two  of  which,  tho  not  public 
buildings,  were  important  enough  to  be  mentioned  in 
an  ancient  official  report  of  city  edifices.  It  is  thrilling 
to  get  even  this  transient  glimpse  of  those  early  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus   as  an  organized  body,   having  well- 

-^  In  the  earlier  days  respectable  teachers  would  not  take  wages,  but 
lived  upon  the  voluntary  gifts  of  their  students.  One  man,  mentioned  by 
Suetonius,  boasted  that  he  received  400,000  denarii  annually  from  his 
scholars.  Vespasian  was  the  first  emperor  to  establish  state-paid  profes- 
sorships. 


96       THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

known  meeting-houses  in  which  they  conducted  wor- 
ship. Burial  associations  had  official  existence  at  Oxy- 
rhynchus  at  least  as  early  as  67  B.C.,  and  the  Chris- 
tians in  the  first  and  second  centuries  of  our  era  may 
have  organized  themselves  at  times  under  some  such 
name,  but  by  the  third  century  their  churches  were,  as 
we  have  seen,  well  known.  These  churches  must  not 
be  visioned  as  large  and  elegant  buildings,  but  rather 
as  much  resembling  the  oldest  Coptic  churches  of 
Cairo,  such  as  Mar  Mina  or  Al-Muallakah. 

Oxyrhynchus  and  the  villages  of  the  Fayum  had 
always  been  isolated  to  a  degree  because  of  their  geo- 
graphical location;  but  with  the  collapse  of  business  in 
the  Fayum — upon  which  the  trade  of  Oxyrhynchus 
largely  depended — this  isolation  must  have  become 
more  marked.  It  was  a  long  row  against  the  stream 
if  one  ventured  the  long  trip  from  Old  Babylon  to 
Oxyrhynchus  (120  miles),  and  a  three-hour  ride  by 
camel  or  two  by  donkey  from  the  Nile  to  the  town.  If 
he  came  all  the  way  by  camel  it  could  scarcely  take  him 
much  less  than  a  week  from  Old  Babylon,  and  twice  as 
long  coming  from  Alexandria.  It  was  not  likely  that 
the  rich  politicians  and  ecclesiastics  of  Alexandria 
should  be  much  interested  in  these  poor  towns  in  the 
Fayum  and  Upper  Egypt,  especially  after  financial 
misfortune  had  befallen  them.  That  intercourse  be- 
tween these  two  widely  separated  sections  of  Egypt 
was  exceedingly  limited  is  further  suggested  by  the 
fact  that  no  native  was  allowed  to  go  from  one  dis- 
trict to  another  without  a  permit.^^ 

We  leave  this  discussion  for  the  present  with  the 
final  statement  that  the  linguistic,  religious,  and  social 

^^  Greek  Papyri  of  the  British  Museum,  IV.,  XV. 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  OF  PAPYRI  97 

atmosphere  of  Oxyrhynchus  was  that  of  the  Fayum, 
not  that  of  Alexandria.^'^  This  fact  has  an  important 
bearing  upon  the  vakie  of  the  newly  discovered  New 
Testament  texts — but  that  is  another  story  which  must 
he  told  in  another  chapter.^^* 


•'  The  "Blessed  Pachotnius"  (a.d.  292-346)  makes  it  perfectly  clear  in 
the  Paradise  of  the  Holy  Fathers  that  Oxyrhynchus,  tho  he  speaks  of 
it  as  "a  great  city,"  could  not  have  had  a  population  much  above  20,000, 
for  he  says  that  5,000  monks  lived  in  the  city,  and  as  many  more  round 
about  it,  and  that  "the  monks  are  not  much  fewer  in  numbers  than  the 
ordinary  inhabitants  of  the  city."  The  poverty  of  Oxyrhynchus  is  addi- 
tionally shown  by  the  few  orders  to  silversmiths  as  compared  with  some 
other  towns  (cf.  Archiv.  fiir  Papyrusforschung,  1909,  p.  382;  Hawara 
Papyri,  No.  68).  On  the  crudity  and  poverty  of  the  churches  in  Lower 
Egypt  and  Nubia  see  Somers  Clarke,  Christian  Antiquities  in  the  Nile 
Valley  (1912)  ;  and  Geoffrey  S.  Mileham,  Churches  in  Lower  Nubia 
(1910). 

^"' Those  who  wish  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  latest  discoveries  in  this 
field  should  become  members  of  the  Egyptian  Exploration  Fund  ($5.00), 
and  thus  receive  regularly  The  Journal  of  Egyptian  Archceology,  which  is 
by  far  the  best  publication  in  English  touching  these  matters.  Those  who 
desire  to  help  the  work  of  exploration  and  keep  informed  on  this  subject 
can  send  their  names  to  Mrs.  Marie  N.  Buckman,  secretary  of  the  Egyp- 
tian Exploration  Fund  for  the  United  States,  527  Tremont  Temple,  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  who  will  furnish  literature  and  further  information. 


II 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  THE  PAPYRI  UPON  THE 

LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW 

TESTAMENT 

I.  New  Light  Upon  the  Origin  and  Textual  Form 
OF  the  New  Testament 

The  writer  appeals  to  Sir  F.  G.  Kenyon,  of  the 
British  Museum/  and  to  Dr.*George  Milhgan,  of  the 
University  of  Glasgow,^  for  the  latest  expert  judgment 
in  regard  to  this.  According  to  these  scholars,  the  new 
discoveries  have  not  only  made  all  former  results  of 
Greek  paleography  out  of  date,  but  have  really  for  the 
first  time  established  the  science  on  a  solid  basis. 
The  old  division  of  manuscripts  into  uncials  and  minu- 
scules is  now  of  little  use,  the  real  division  being  be- 
tween literary  and  non-literary  manuscripts;  the  cur- 
sive script  being  used  in  common  matters  even  in  the 
earliest  centuries.  While  few,  if  any,  dated  papyri 
come  from  the  first  century  B.C.,  great  numbers  come 
from  the  two  centuries  preceding  and  from  the  first, 
second  and  third  centuries  after  Christ,  so  that  for  the 
first  time  undated  documents  can  now  be  generally  as- 
signed with  considerable  certainty  to  their  proper 
century.  The  form.ation  of  the  letters  and  the  character 
of  the  abbreviations  and  other  changes  in  handwriting 
and  orthography  make  it  as  easy  to  decide  between  a 
first   century   and   a   third   century    Greek   manuscript 

*  Textual  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  1912. 
'New  Testament  Documents,  1913. 

98 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT       99 

as  between  a  sixteenth  century  and  a  nineteenth  cen- 
tury English  manuscript.  The  grammar  and  popular 
phraseology  show  equal  changes,  so  that  a  new  argu- 
ment inexpressibly  strong  has  suddenly  arisen,  com- 
pelling skeptical  scholars  almost  irresistibly  to  date 
the  New  Testament  documents  in  the  first  century. 
Thus  paleography  adds  its  weight  to  the  former  strong 
internal  argument. 

In  the  lifetime  of  our  Lord  there  was  a  "wide- 
spread habit  of  writing  among  all  classes  of  the 
population,"  and  no  doubt  the  leading  facts  were  writ- 
ten down  and  circulated  "almost  as  soon  as  they 
took  place" — tho  doubtless  at  first  in  fragmentary 
form — so  that  probably  the  first  account  of  the  death 
of  Jesus  "must  be  presumed  to  be  written  in  the  year 
he  died"  (Milligan).  As  soon  as  the  converts  became 
so  many  that  the  original  apostles  could  not  easily 
carry  authoritative  facts  personally  to  all  Christian 
communities,  a  need  of  records  would  be  felt  which,  be- 
cause of  this  general  habit  of  note  taking  and  writing, 
could  be  readily  supplied. 

We  now  know  exactly  how  those  first  records  of 
the  Lord's  life  looked  in  the  middle  of  that  first  cen- 
tury. They  were  written  on  papyrus  sheets  which 
ordinarily  measured  five  by  eleven  inches,  with  twenty 
sheets  usually  to  the  roll,  the  columns  being  generally 
two  or  three  inches  wide  with  small  margins.  Mark's 
gospel  would  make  a  roll  about  nineteen  feet  long  and 
Romans  eleven  and  one-half  feet;  while  2  Thessa- 
lonians  could  be  written  in  a  five  column  roll  fifteen 
inches  in  length.  They  were  written  with  a  reed  pen 
{cf.  3  John  13),  with  an  ink  made  out  of  soot 
and  gum,  which  was  very  legible  except  when  "blotted 


loo     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  'DISCOVERIES 

out"  or  'Svashcd  out"  (cf.  Col.  2:  14).  The  roll  was 
bound  with  a  thread  and  sealed  (Rev.  5:1),  a  will 
often  being  sealed  seven  times  and  authenticated.  For 
preservation  rolls  were  fastened  together  in  bundles 
and  laid  in  arks  or  chests,  *'a  practise  which  enables 
us  to  understand  how  unsigned  rolls  laid  up  in  the 
same  place  and  dealing  with  cognate  subjects  would 
come,  in  some  instances,  to  be  joined  together  as  if 
they  formed  parts  of  one  work,  while  in  the  case  of 
others,  errors  regarding  authorship  and  destination 
might  readily  arise"  (Milligan). 

The  ordinary  practise  in  letter  writing  was  by  dic- 
tation, as  is  true  yet  in  Palestine  and  Egypt,  tho  the 
writer  might  sign  his  name  himself  and  add  a  post- 
script {e.g.,  I  Cor.  16:20;  Col.  4:18).  In  emer- 
gencies almost  everybody  could  write,  tho  probably 
not  in  such  good  penmanship  as  the  official  letter 
writers  and  in  a  somewhat  different  style  from  what  he 
would  customarily  use  when  simply  talking  out  what 
he  wanted  to  say. 

It  is  quite  plain  that  the  old  argument  which  would 
deny  to  St.  Paul  certain  letters,  believed  by  the  early 
Church  to  be  his,  because  these  were  written  in  a  dif- 
ferent style  from  others,  loses  most  of  its  force.  It 
may  be  remembered  just  here  that  St.  Jerome  ex- 
plained the  stylistic  difference  between  i  Peter  and 
2  Peter  as  a  difference  in  scribes.  Doubtless  at  differ- 
ent times  these  amanuenses  were  allowed  different 
degrees  of  liberty  in  taking  the  dictation.  It  is  per- 
fectly clear  that  there  would  be  great  differences  in 
results  if  they  made  only  a  rough  draft  of  what  was  to 
be  said  and  then  carefully  rewrote  it,  or  if  they  took  it 
in  shorthand — which,  however,  was  not  common  among 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     loi 

the  middle  classes — or  if  they  took  down  the  dictation 
word  for  word  as  spoken. 

Certain  it  is  that  the  papyri  were  usually  written  in 
one  hand  and  signed  in  another.  What  would  natural- 
ly happen  can  be  seen  from  contemporaneous  autograph 
letters  of  the  first  century,  and  from  the  average  news- 
paper report  of  the  modern  sermon.  This  has  been 
very  brilliantly  illustrated  by  Prof.  James  Hope  Moul- 
ton  in  his  Nczv  Light  from  the  Egyptian  Rubbish 
Heaps  (1916),  in  which  he  explains  the  fact  that 
Ephesians  contains  more  "Semitisms"  than  any  other 
letter  of  St.  Paul,  by  the  simple  theory  that  Timothy, 
or  some  other  close  Hebrew  friend,  was  Paul's  scribe 
in  writing  that  epistle.  Paul,  according  to  this  view, 
wrote  Colossians  with  his  own  hand,  and  then  let 
Timothy,  after  hearing  it  read,  turn  it  into  a  circular 
letter  which  would  be  suitable  for  all  the  churches  of 
the  valley.  Timothy  was  with  Paul  as  helper,  and 
"from  a  child"  had  been  steeped  in  the  sacred  writings 
(2  Tim.  3:  15),  never  having  been  Hellenized  as  Paul 
had.  Dr.  Moulton  believes  that  it  needs  only  this 
very  natural  supposition  to  remove  entirely  this 
serious  argument  against  the  Pauline  authorship  of 
Ephesians. 

Dr.  Moulton  also  believes  that  the  papyri  prove 
tnat  such  a  theory  is  not  far-fetched,  for  two  ancient 
letters  written  upon  the  same  day  by  different  persons 
have  come  to  us,  which  are  almost  as  near  alike  as 
Colossians  and  Ephesians,  one  being  written  by  a 
wife  to  her  husband,  Hephaestion,  and  the  other  writ- 
ten to  the  same  man  by  his  brother — the  similar 
phrases  and  sequence  of  thought  being  evidently  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  wife  and  her  brother-in-law  had 


I02    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

talked  the  matter  over  and  then  independently  written 
within  a  few  hours  of  each  other. 

So  also  many  of  the  grammatical  mistakes,  the 
broken  constructions  and  lapses  of  connection  in  St. 
Paul's  letters,  as  well  as  the  changes  of  style,  seem 
to  be  quite  fully  and  satisfactorily  explained  by  the 
ordinary  method  of  letter  writing  which  is  now  proved 
to  have  existed  at  that  period.  A  break  in  the  change 
of  tone  in  the  same  letter  would  naturally  occur  if  the 
dictation  had  been  interrupted.  It  is  also  now  known 
that  there  was  generally  no  punctuation,  little  if  any 
separation  of  words,  many  abbreviations,  and  no  quo- 
tation marks  in  the  first  century  letters — all  of  which 
must  be  remembered  in  criticizing  the  present  text. 

Even  the  pastoral  epistles,  tho  greatly  differing 
in  style  and  language  from  the  other  letters  of  Paul, 
are  now  accepted  by  many  scholars  of  international 
reputation  as  embodying  "genuine  Pauline  material, 
tho  showing  such  an  advanced  state  of  ecclesiastical 
organization  that  they  may  have  been  put  in  their 
present  form  after  the  apostle's  death."  ^  The  new  dis- 
coveries have  considerably  relieved  the  defense  of  the 
Pauline  authorship  of  the  pastoral  epistles,  for  the 
amanuensis  may  merely  have  been  a  man  of  wider  cul- 
ture and  have  been  left  a  freer  hand  than  usual.*  At 
any  rate,  the  new  discoveries  show  that  the  Pauline  and 
other  New  Testament  epistles,  if  they  originated  like 
similar  material  of  the  same  era,  were  probably  written 
to  dictation  and  always  with  a  definite  audience  before 
the  eye  of  the  author  and  were  therefore  almost  as 

'New  Testament  Documents,  p.  85;   cf.   Bartlett,  London  Expositor, 
1913,  p.  347#. 

*  Milligan,  op.  cit.,  p.  103;  but  see  against  this  view  Moffatt,  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Literature  of  the  New  Testament,  1914,  p.  407. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     103 

much  speeches  as  letters,  this  speech-form  being  molded 
by  contemporary  rhetoric  and  by  local  and  racial 
methods  of  expression  and  reasoning. 

So  far  as  textual  criticism  is  concerned,  Dr.  Milli- 
gan  is  certainly  entitled  to  give  an  expert  opinion,  and 
he  declares  that  in  view  of  all  the  new  light  coming 
upon  the  question  from  recent  discovery  it  is  safe  to 
conclude  that  "with  the  probable  exception  of  2  Peter  all 
our  New  Testament  writings  may  now  be  placed  with- 
in the  first  century"  (ibid.,  p.  172).  If  Professor  Har- 
nack  is  right  in  saying  that  it  is  "in  the  highest  degree 
probable"  that  the  book  of  Acts  was  written  "at  a  time 
when  St.  Paul's  trial  had  not  yet  come  to  an  end,"  ^ 
then  he  and  Dr.  Milligan  can  not  be  far  wrong  in  plac- 
ing the  composition  of  the  Acts  about  a.d.  62,  and  the 
synoptic  gospels  could  not  have  been  much  later;  tho 
it  was  nearly  three  centuries  before  all  the  separated 
documents  of  the  New  Testament  were  gathered  to- 
gether as  we  now  have  them.^ 

It  is  surprizing  how  few  can  now  be  found  to  de- 
fend the  late  dates  so  popular  two  generations  ago. 
The  encyclical  nature  of  many  of  the  epistles  would  / 
necessitate  copies,  and  even  private  churches  would  be 
likely  to  send  to  other  churches  any  rare  apostolic  mes- 
sage which  they  possest — travel  being  easy,  as  is  illus- 
trated from  a  recently  discovered  document  which  shows 
that  one  merchant  had  journeyed  from  Asia  to  Rome 
over  seventy  times.  In  the  main  these  copies  would 
probably  be  made  faithfully,  tho  breaks  might  occur 
and  the  lacunae  afterward  restored  from  memory.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  copies  would  at  first  be  made 

'Date  of  Acts  and  Synoptic  Gospels,  1911,  p.  99. 

'The  views  of  other  scholars  may  be  noted  in  Moffatt's  Introduction  to 
the  Literature  of  the  New  Testament,  1914,  p.  213. 


I04     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

hurriedly  and  with  no  thought  of  the  need  of  verbal 
accuracy,  so  that  a  copyist  might  try  in  love  to  remove 
what  looked  like  some  blemish  of  language  or  mean- 
ing. It  must  also  be  remembered  that  the  hardest 
usage  for  a  roll  would  come  naturally  at  the  beginning 
and  end,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  shorter  and  longer 
endings  added  later  to  Mark's  gospel.  This  is  wholly 
in  accordance  with  the  facts  as  observed  in  the  docu- 
ments preserved  to  us  from  the  first  and  following 
centuries.  Parts  of  a  letter  might  also  be  easily  dis- 
placed (as  Rom,  i6),  and  different  letters  from  the 
same  person  might  be  copied  into  the  same  roll  but 
not  in  chronological  order  (e.g.,  2  Corinthians). 

Papyrus  books  were  not  so  common  in  the  early 
Christian  centuries  as  papyrus  rolls.  The  book  repre- 
sented a  more  elaborate  literary  product.  It  was 
always  from  the  pen  of  some  celebrated  author  or  was 
made  up  of  a  collection  of  writings  gathered  together 
after  these  writings  had  become  so  sufficiently  celebra- 
ted that  a  large  demand  for  them  had  become  common. 
Parchment  w^as  not  limited  in  its  source,  as  papyrus 
was,  and  being  stronger  and  more  flexible  it  came  into 
use  for  literary  purposes  at  least  as  early  as  the  second 
century  B.C.,  and  by  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  had 
become  popular  for  the  better  class  of  Christian  litera- 
ture. From  this  century  comes  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful editions  of  the  Apocalypse  written  on  vellum,  each 
ieaf  being  of  miniature  proportions.^  One  discovery 
such  as  this  is  quite  sufficient  to  annihilate  the  eccen- 
tric theory  of  Nikolaus  Morosow^  that  the  book  of 
Revelation  was  written  as  an  astrological  exercise  by 

'  Oxyrhynchiis  Papyri,  Vol.  VIII,  14. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     105 

John  Chrysostoni  on  or  about  September  30,  a.d.  395 !  ^ 
The  new  discoveries  have  enabled  us  to  get  to  the 
original  New  Testament  with  more  certainty  than  in 
the  case  of  any  other  ancient  book.  "For  our  knowl- 
edge of  Sophocles,  for  example,  we  are  mainly  depen- 
dent on  a  single  manuscript  written  about  1,400  years 
after  the  poet's  death,  and  tho  in  the  case  of  Vergil 
we  are  fortunate  in  possessing  one  nearly  complete 
manuscript  belonging  to  the  fourth  century,  the  total 
number  of  Vergilian  manuscripts  can  be  numbered 
only  by  hundreds,  as  compared  with  thousands  in  the 
case  of  the  New  Testament  writers."  Dr.  Milligan 
dares  to  add  concerning  the  New  Testament:  "We 
may  take  it  that  in  all  substantial  particulars  the 
words  of  the  autographs  have  been  recovered."  And 
Caspar  Rene  Gregory  suggests  that  the  early  changes 
in  the  text  were  no  more  marked  than  those  introduced 
by  recent  critics,  such  as  Griesbach,  Tischendorf, 
Tregelles,  and  Westcott  and  Hort.^  This  does  not  mean 
that  there  were  not  varieties  of  text,  marginal  glosses, 
and  "interpolated  adscripts"  even  in  sub-apostolic  times 
— these  occur  in  every  classic ;"  but  it  does  mean  that  all 
,  the  mass  of  new  discovery  has  only  made  more  certain 
'the  antiquity  and  essential  integrity  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment text,  as  all  the  great  text  critics  admit. 

"Die  Offenbanuig  Johannes,  1912,  pp.  100-110. 

^Textcritik  des  Neuen  Test.,  1909,  p.  1,008;  see  also  Milligan,  New 
Testament  Documents,  pp.  196-199;  also  Von  Soden,  Die  Schriften  des 
Neuen  Test.,  Band  I.,  Abt.  II.,  passim;  Kenyon,  Handbook,  1901,  chap. 
VIII.;  Scrivener,  Plain  Introduction,  1:4-8,  11:259-273;  Gregory,  Canon 
and  Text  of  New  Test.,  pp.  126,  501-508;  Zahn.  Introduction  to  New  Test., 
pp.  178-194. 

'"  See  Rutherford,  Fourth  Book  of  Thucydides,  pp.  xxxi#. 


io6     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

2.  New  Light  Upon  the  Grammar  of  the  New 
Testament 

In  the  last  twenty  years  New  Testament  grammar 
has  become  a  new  study  because  of  the  papyri.  Even 
as  early  as  1841,  Thiersch  pointed  out  the  value  of  the 
papyri  for  the  study  of  the  Septuagint."  Lightfoot,  in 
1863,  saw  the  advantage  which  would  come  to  us  in 
explaining  the  New  Testament  if  we  could  have  the 
letters  of  ordinary  people  from  that  era;  but  it  was 
Deissmann  who  first  attempted  to  examine  extensively 
the  grammar  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  light  of  the 
new  discoveries  of  papyri/^  In  1901,  Thumb  published 
a  great  book  on  the  Koine,^^^  and  five  years  later  Dr. 
J.  H.  Moulton  gave  to  the  English-speaking  world  his 
Introduction  to  the  Nezv  Testament  Greek;  but  no  one 
has  treated  the  entire  grammatical  field  in  the  light  of 
the  new  discoveries  with  such  fulness  and  thoroughness 
as  A.  T.  Robertson  in  his  Grammar  of  the  Greek 
New  Testament  in  the  Light  of  Historical  Research, 
1914. 

The  remarkable  increase  of  interest  in  this  field,  due 
chiefly  to  the  new  discoveries,  may  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that  within  the  last  eight  or  nine  years  at  least  eight 
or  nine  notable  Greek  grammars  have  been  published. 
Some  of  these  deal  with  the  grammar  of  the  papyri 
directly ;  ^^  others  deal  with  the  modern  Greek,  which 
is  now  seen  to  be  far  more  closely  connected  with  the 

"  De  Pentateuchi  versione  Alexandrina. 

"Die  spraclil.  Erforschung  der  griech.  Bibel,  1898,  and  Bibelstudien, 
1895-1898. 

"*  Die  griecliische  Sprache  im  Zeitalter  des  Hellenismus^ 

"  Mayser,  Grainmatik  der  griech.  Papyri,  1906, 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     107 

New  Testament  language  than  classical  Greek ; "  still 
others  deal  with  the  Greek  of  the  Septuagint."* 

The  best  recent  grammars  which  have  to  do  directly 
with  the  New  Testament  Greek  are  named  below." 

Innumerable  smaller  works  and  important  contri- 
butions on  the  New  Testament  in  the  light  of  the  papyri 
have  appeared  and  also  several  new  lexicons.^® 

This  shows  the  unprecedented  interest  which  has 
been  aroused  by  these  new  discoveries.  Without  the 
tjreek  learning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Reforma- 
tion could  not  have  been  accomplished.  Since  that  day 
until  now  there  has  never  been  a  revival  of  Greek 
learning  equal  to  that  which  is  stirring  the  whole 
world  at  the  present  moment.  And  the  influence  of 
these  discoveries  has  produced  an  eager  enthusiasm 
for  Greek  grammar  and  the  Greek  New  Testament, 

"Thumb,  Handhuch  der  neu-griech.  Volkssprache,  1910;  Thumb- 
Angus,  Hand  Book  of  the  Modern  Greek  Vernacular,  1912. 

"' Conybeare  and  Helbing,  Grammatik  der  Septiiaginta,  1907;  Stock, 
Selections  from  the  LXX:  a  Grammatical  Introduction,  1905;  Thackeray, 
A  Grammar  of  the  O.T.  in  Greek,  Vol.  1,  1909. 

"Abbott,  Johannine  Grammar,  1906;  Blass,  Grammatik  des  neutest. 
Griechisch,  1902;  Gerth-Blass,  in  Ausfiihrliche  Grammatik  der  griechi- 
schen  Sprache,  1890-1904;  Thackeray-Blass,  Grammar  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 1905;  Moulton,  Grammar  of  New  Testament  Greek,  Vol.  I,  Prolego- 
mena, 1906;  Radermacher,  Neutest.  Grammatik,  1911;  A.  T.  Robertson, 
Short  Grammar  of  the  Greek  New  Testament,  1908  (translated  into  Ital- 
ian, 1910;  French  and  Dutch,  1911;  German,  1912);  Brugmann-Thumb, 
Griechische  Grammatik,  1913;  Blass-Debrunner,  Grammatik  des  neutest. 
Griechisch,  1913 ;  Robertson,  Grammar  of  the  Greek  New  Testament  in 
the  Light  of  Historical  Research,  1914,  (2d  ed.  1915). 

"  Among  the  latter  should  be  mentioned  Nageli,  Der  Wortschats  des 
Apostels  Paulus,  1905;  the  Cremer-Kiigel  Lexicon  of  New  Testament 
Greek,  1912;  the  revision  of  Passow's  Lexicon  by  Cronert,  1912;  the 
supplementary  Greek  Lexicon  by  Herwerden,  2  vols.,  1910;  the  great 
Greek  Lexicon  begun  at  Athens  in  1901 ;  and  Preuschen's  Vollst'dndiges 
griechisch-deutsches  Handwdrterbuch,  1908-1910;  Souter,  A  Pocket  Lexicon 
to  the  Greek  New  Testament,  1916.  Lexicons  are  also  announced  by 
Deissmann,  and  by  Moulton  and  Milligan,  the  latter  of  whom  have  been 
publishing  for  ten  years  in  The  Expositor  important  contributions  to  Lexi- 
cography from  the  Papyri  and  at  this  writing  have  issued  Parts  I  and  II  of 
their  exhaustive  Vocabulary  of  the  Greek  Testament,  covering  all  New 
Testament  words  from  Alpha  to  Delta. 


io8     THI':  NEW  ARCIIICOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

such  as  has  not  hccn  known  for  four  hundred  years. 
The  i;"raniniar  of  the  Koine  (which  was  the  vernacular 
of  the  first  century,  spoken  and  written  all  over  the 
civilized  world)  and  the  grammar  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  essentially  the  same,  as  the  great  grammar- 
ians referred  to  above  have  shown."  There  was  an 
ancient  Attic  vernacular  corresponding  to  the  literary 
Attic,  and  upon  this  as  a  base  there  were  deposited  va- 
rious influences  from  other  dialects;  yet  the  Koine  was 
practically  homogeneous,  notwithstanding  local  varia- 
tions, tho  in  remote  districts  it  became  Doric-colored 
or  Ionic-colored.  So  far  as  phonetics  and  orthog- 
raphy are  concerned,  we  find  that  there  were  no 
settled  rules,  probably,  in  the  Koine.  There  never  was 
a  fixt  orthography  in  Greek,  and  we  do  not  know 
certainly  how^  the  ancient  Attic  or  the  Koine  were  pro- 
nounced, tho  we  can  approximate  it  because  the  pro- 
nunciation of  the  modern  Greek  vernacular  is  known. 
It  is  of  value  to  discover  that  we  must  not  insist  too 
strongly  in  Bible  study  on  "hair-splitting  differences 
hinging  on  forms  which  for  the  scribe  of  our  uncials 
had  identical  value  phonetically."  ^^  As  rough  breath- 
ings and  the  accent  came  into  use  only  in  late  Christian 
times,  our  phonetic  reconstruction  of  the  ancient  tongue 
must  be  by  guess.  No  doubt  there  were  local  varia- 
tions in  the  pronunciation  of  the  Koine,  and  as  many 
Bible  manuscripts  were  written  from  dictation  instead 
of  from  reading,  it  is  natural  that  there  should  be  much 
variation  in  spelling,  even  in  the  earliest  New  Testament 
manuscripts;  yet  there  is  a  marked  difference  between 

"  See  also  the  masterly   article  liy  Thumb   in    The  Dictionary   of  the 
Apostolic  Church,  1916,  on  '"Hellenistic  and  Biblical  Greek." 

"Angus,  The  Koine,  p.  79. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     109 

the  papyri  of  the  first  and  the  fourth  centuries.  Here 
we  possess  a  new  proof  that  our  fourth  century  Bible 
texts  were  copied  from  ancient  originals.  In  the  Koine 
of  the  first  century,  as  contrasted  with  the  classical 
Greek,  old  suffixes  were  dropt  and  new  suffixes 
coined,  and  the  number  of  words  compounded  by  juxta- 
position greatly  increased.  The  nominativus  pendens 
is  much  in  evidence.  The  neuter  plural  is  used  with 
either  a  singular  or  a  plural  verb.  The  accusative  is 
regaining  ascendency.  The  comparative  often  does 
duty  for  the  superlative  adjective.  The  use  of  the  per- 
sonal pronoun  becomes  more  frequent,  but  that  of  the 
possessive  pronoun  decreases.  In  the  verb  there  is  a 
marked  tendency  toward  simplification,  the  two  con- 
jugations blending  into  one.  The  cases  with  preposi- 
tions are  changing.  The  optative  is  disappearing.  The 
instrumental  use  of  8V  is  common.  The  future  parti- 
ciple is  less  frequent.  The  growth  of  the  passive  over 
the  middle  is  marked,  as  is  also  the  later  use  of  parti- 
ciples. In  the  vocabulary  words  from  town-life 
(the  stage,  the  market-place)  come  to  the  front,  and 
there  is  a  marked  increase  in  the  mmiber  of  diminu- 
tive forms.  Thus  we  find  both  in  word  formation  and 
accidence,  as  well  as  in  the  vocabulary  and  orthog- 
raphy, clear  tests  by  which  the  age  of  the  texts  can 
now  be  discriminated — showing  by  a  new  line  of  argu- 
ment not  possible  to  our  fathers  the  antiquity  of  the 
originals  of  the  New  Testament  manuscripts.  Pro- 
fessor Robertson  in  his  great  Grammar  of  the  Greek 
New  Testament  in  the  Light  of  Historical  Research 
has  pointed  out  minutely  and  voluminously  these  changes 
from  the  classical  usage  found  in  the  papyri  and  in  the 
New  Testament.     We  have  used  above  his  authorita- 


no     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

tive  conclusions  and  we  now  venture  to  borrow  from 
him  further  on  a  most  important  phase  of  this  subject. 
The  New  Testament  writers  were  once  supposed 
to  have  used  prepositions  so  freely  because  of  the 
Hebrew  and  Aramaic,  and  it  was  counted  equally  cer- 
tain that  every  preposition  had  some  divine  meaning  in 
the  sacred  text,  so  that  to  interchange  one  for  the 
other  would  amount  almost  to  sacrilege.  This  old  and 
well-established  opinion  has  been  badly  damaged  by 
the  newly  discovered  facts;  for  we  find  the  new  prepo- 
sitions which  were  supposed  to  be  Semitic  used  freely 
in  the  vernacular  of  the  early  centuries  by  a  non- 
Jewish  population,  and  we  fail  to  find  the  inflexibility 
in  the  use  of  such  prepositions  which  the  theologians 
and  grammarians  of  a  generation  ago  assumed,  djio 
jiapd,  VTio  and  m  are  used  in  the  papyri  without 
exactness  of  distinction,  and  vtieq  is  often  only  a  color- 
less ''about"  or  used  in  the  sense  of  "to"  without  any 
reference  to  the  deeper  original  meaning. ^^  The  inter- 
change of  e'lg  and  8V  is  frequent  in  the  papyri,  and  only 
the  context  can  determine  whether  eig  means  "into," 
"unto,"  "in,"  "on,"  or  "upon."  This,  of  course,  does 
not  prove  that  prepositions  in  the  New  Testament  are 
mere  synonyms ;  but  it  does  suggest  that  theological  con- 
clusions from  such  premises  must  be  drawn  with  care, 
since  the  New  Testament  was  practically  the  spoken 
language  of  the  first  century,  and  minute  distinctions 
are  not  to  be  expected  in  colloquial  use.^^  The  New 
Testament  writers  used  the  language  common  upon  the 

"  Moulton,  op.  cit.,  pp.  105,  237. 

*"  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the  New  Testament  writers  are 
from  the  middle  class,  not  the  lowest  class,  and  that  both  Moulton  and 
Robertson  recognize  the  nice  discrimination  ordinarily  shown  in  the  use 
of  prepositions  by  Bible  writers.  See  particularly  Robertson,  op.  cit.,  pp. 
556-557,  885#,  902. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     iii 

street,  and  this  language  was  changing  in  their  very 
Hfetime;  so  that  we  find  that  a  new  usage  of  Jiepi,  be- 
ginning in  Paul's  letter  with  Philippians.^^  So  the 
weakened  use  of  Iva  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
Koine  and  is  richly  illustrated  in  the  New  Testament, 
particularly  in  the  writings  of  St.  John. 

From  the  study  of  the  grammar  of  the  Koine  it  is 
perfectly  clear  that  many  of  the  supposed  blunders  and 
solecisms  of  the  New  Testament  writers  and  their  sup- 
posed errors  in  transcription  of  the  text  are  merely 
grammatical  forms  common  among  the  middle  classes 
of  the  first  century.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest  dis- 
coveries that  have  been  made.  The  two  genders  found 
with  the  same  word  in  Rev.  14:  19  are  also  found  with 
this  same  word  in  the  papyri.^^  So  Blass  needlessly 
wished  to  amend  the  text  in  2  Tim.  2:  14,  and  both 
Blass  and  Moulton  hesitated  to  accept  -av  in  the  present 
perfect  instead  of  the  usual  -doi — regarding  it  as  "a 
vulgarism  due  to  the  occasional  lapse  of  an  early 
scribe";  but  the  papyri  prove  that  while  these  are 
loose  constructions,  they  were  not  uncommon  in  the 
apostolic  era  and  were  not  marks  of  an  uneducated 
person. 

The  accuracy  and  age  of  the  New  Testament  docu- 
ments are  thus  confirmed  by  the  new  discoveries  in  a 
striking  way;  for  altho  the  great  New  Testament 
uncials  of  the  fourth  and  later  centuries  were  changed 
slightly  in  vocabulary  and  grammatical  idiom  to  con- 
form to  the  customs  in  those  centuries,  yet  these  re- 
tain the  ancient  and  peculiar  forms  of  the  first  and 
second  centuries  to  such  an  extent  that  their  origin  is. 

"  Robertson,  ibid.,  p.  620. 

"  Moulton,  Prolegomena,  p.  60. 

'^  Robertson,  ibid.,  pp.  336,  945. 


112     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

now  undoubted.  It  does  not  need  a  "redactor"  any 
longer  to  explain  the  different  spellings  and  changes  in 
orthography,  and  in  every  direction  these  modern 
studies  have  increased  the  authority  of  the  great  uncial 
MSS.  of  the  New  Testament."^  The  textual  problem  is, 
however,  complicated  somewhat  by  the  fact,  now  finally 
settled,  that  the  earliest  Bible  texts,  near  the  Con- 
stantine  era,  while  essentially  the  same  as  our  Greek 
text,  did  not  fall  so  constantly  into  the  two  general 
types  which  later  became  universal  ("Eastern" 
and  "Western") ;  but  were  rather  "neutral"  texts 
which  related  the  gospel  story  before  the  verbal  phrase- 
ology had  become  stereotyped.  It  was,  seemingly,  only 
in  later  times  that  the  adoration  of  the  "letter"  of  the 
New  Testament  began.  The  early  Christians  were 
more  interested  in  repeating  the  substance  of  the  gospel 
story  and  getting  the  spirit  of  the  narratives  than  in 
remembering  the  exact  phraseology. 

3.  New  Light  Upon  the  Style  of  the  New 
Testament 

The  style  of  the  New  Testament  was  the  style  of 
the  Koine.  As  Moulton  well  says:  Biblical  Greek  did 
not  "lie  in  a  backwater";  it  was  in  the  "full  stream." 
No  literary  man  of  the  day  would  have  used  this  local 
dialect.  The  Holy  Ghost  spoke  in  the  vernacular.  The 
very  grammar  and  dictionary  cry  out  against  men  who 
would  allow  the  Scriptures  to  appear  in  any  other  form 
than  that  understood  by  the  people. 

Each  New  Testament  writer  had  individual  char- 
acteristics, but,  with  the  exception  of  Luke,  the  author 

=='  Moulton,  op.  c'lt.,  pp.  42-38.  . 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     113 

of  the  Hebrews,  and  Paul  in  a  few  of  his  epistles,  these 
were  all  written  in  the  "vulgar  tongue"  of  the  first 
century.  Mark  often  uses  the  "dramatic  present"  just 
as  servant  girls  do  now  in  their  talk;  but  Luke 
changed  these  tenses  to  suit  literary  proprieties.  Luke 
was  quite  familiar  with  the  Greek  Bible  (LXX)  and 
consciously  imitated  it.^^  He  was  a  Gentile  and  the 
most  literary  of  the  gospel  writers.  His  vocabulary 
illustrates  his  breadth  of  culture,  for  he  uses  750 
words,  very  many  of  wdiich  are  technical  medical  terms 
not  occurring  elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament  in  the 
same  sense  (Hobart).  While  he  has  a  fine  command 
of  the  popular  diction  there  is  a  literary  touch  about 
him  not  found  in  the  papyri.  Blass  has  even  suggested 
that  his  prolog  was  imitated  from  the  opening  of 
Dioscorides'  great  work  on  inatcria  medica,  which  he 
probably  had  in  his  library.^®  The  author  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  shows  a  quality  of  studied  literary 
style  above  all  the  other  Bible  writers.  This  book  was 
written  by  one  who,  tho  he  apparently  knew  no 
Hebrew  and  used  only  the  LXX,  was  filled  with  the 
Semitic  spirit.  The  vocabulary,  like  the  style,  is  less 
like  the  vernacular  Koine  than  any  book  in  the  New 
Testament.  Of  ^y  words  which  are  found  in  the  LXX 
and  in  this  book  alone  in  the  New  Testament,  74  belong 
to  the  ancient  literary  works  and  only  13  to  the  ver- 
nacular.^^ Paul,  especially  in  Romans  and  Ephesians, 
shows  at  times  an  almost  classic  perfection;  yet  this  is 
due  to  intellect  and  passion  rather  than  to  studied 
effort.     There  is  not  space  here  to  quote  in  full  Pro- 

""  Moulton,  Prolegomena,  p.  131 ;  Camp.  Bihl.  Essays,  p.  479. 

'^Philology  of  the  Gospels,  1898,  p.  34. 

"Robertson,  Grammar  of  New  Test,  in  the  Light  of  Hist.  Research,  p. 
132. 


114     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

fessor  Robertson's  keen  analysis  of  Paul's  style;  but 
perhaps  a  few  quotations  may  show  him  in  his  relation 
to  the  common  language  of  his  day: 

"He  disclaims  classic  elegance  and  calls  himself  ISiooTrig  rw 
Xoycp  (2  Cor.  11:6);  yet  this  was  in  contrast  with  the  false  taste  of 
the  Corinthians.  But  Deissmann  (St.  Paul,  p.  6)  goes  too  far 
in  making  Paul  a  mere  tent-maker  devoid  of  culture.  He  is 
abrupt,  paradoxical,  bold,  antithetical,  now  like  a  torrent,  now 
like  a  summer  brook ;  but  it  is  passion,  not  ignorance  nor  careless- 
ness. .  .  .  Paul's  style  is  unhellenic  in  arrangement,  but  in 
Romans  8  and  i  Cor.  13  he  reaches  the  elevation  and  dignity  of 
Plato.  .  .  .  The  grammar  shows  little  Semitic  influence.  .  .  .  He 
is  noted  for  his  varied  use  of  the  particles  and  writes  with  free- 
dom and  accuracy,  though  his  anacolutha  are  numerous,  as  in 
Gal.  2 : 6-9.  He  uses  prepositions  with  great  frequency  and  dis- 
crimination. The  genitive  is  employed  by  Paul  with  every  variety 
of  application.  The  particle  appears  with  great  luxuriance  and  in 
all  sorts  of  ways  .  .  .  but  even  in  a  riot  of  language  his  thought 
is  clear,  and  Paul  often  draws  a  fine  point  on  the  turn  of  a  word,  or 
a  tense,  or  a  case.  .  .  .  He  thinks  in  Greek,  and  it  is  the  vernacu- 
lar xoivTj  of  a  brilliant  and  well-educated  man  in  touch  with  the 
Greek  culture  of  his  time  though  remaining  thoroughly  Jewish  in 
his  mental  fibre"  (pp.  128-131). 

"Luke  was  not  an  artificial  rhetorician  nor  was  Paul  a  mere 
bungler.  When  Paul's  heart  was  all  ablaze  with  passion,  as  in 
2  Cor.,  he  did  pile  up  participles  like  boulders  on  the  mountain 
side,  a  sort  of  volcanic  eruption  (cf.  2  Cor.  3:8-10;  6:9/; 
9:11^.);  but  there  is  always  a  path  through  these  participles. 
Paul  would  not  let  himself  be  caught  in  a  net  of  mere  grammatical 
niceties.  If  necessary  he  broke  the  rule  and  went  on"  (Ibid.  p. 
1136). 

It  is  evident  that  even  Paul,  genius  as  he  was  and 
educated  as  he  must  have  been,  wrote  in  the  common, 
middle-class  language  of  his  day,  lifting  it,  however, 
to  an  unusual  elevation  of  style  and  occasionally  coin- 
ing a  new  word  to  fit  his  new  and  noble  thought.  Pro- 
fessor Souter  notes  three  such  probable  originations  on 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     115 

the  part  of  Paul,  and  Moulton  notes  one,  "double- 
minded,"  on  the  part  of  James.  The  other  New  Testa- 
ment books  are  undoubtedly  examples  of  the  vernacu- 
lar, both  in  grammar,  vocabulary,  and  style,  unless  it 
be  the  gospel  of  John,  The  latter  contains  Hebraisms 
and  a  mystic  cast  of  thought  and  expression  which  are 
unusual  either  in  the  New  Testament  or  out  of  it. 
Yet  in  the  formal  grammar  the  Greek  is  "much  like 
the  vernacular,"  and  certain  newly  discovered  Jewish 
or  early  Christian  documents,  to  be  mentioned  later, 
show  that  its  style  and  theological  thought  were  not 
entirely  unknown  in  the  first  Christian  century.  The 
vernacular,  however,  both  in  vocabulary  and  gram- 
matical idioms,  is  "far  more  in  evidence  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse than  in  the  gospel  and  epistle"  (Robertson).  It 
is  also  an  interesting  fact  that  the  two  New  Testa- 
ment authors  whose  Greek  jars  upon  us  most  (Rev., 
and  2  Peter)  are  the  very  two  who  are  called  in  the 
New    Testament    "ignorant    and    unlearned"     (Acts 

4: 13). 

The  result  of  the  most  careful  study  of  the  papyri 
during  the  last  twenty  years  in  their  connection  with 
the  New  Testament  proves  that,  while  a  certain  Semitic 
influence  was  felt  by  the  New  Testament  writers,  this 
was  chiefly  due  to  the  Septuagint,  since  most  of  the 
grammatical  forms  previously  supposed  to  be  distinctly 
Semitic  are  proved  by  the  new  discoveries  to  have 
been  common  to  the  non-Jewish  population  of  the 
apostolic  era.  Jews  would  undoubtedly  show  their 
Semitic  "birthmarks" — which  Deissmann  was  at  first 
inclined  to  forget — especially  if  they  were  brought  up 
in  the  teaching  of  the  synagog;  yet  the  fact  remains 
that  this   Semitic  influence   affected  the  thought  and 


ii6     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

spirit  of  their  writings  more  largely  than  either  the 
grammar,  style,  or  vocabulary.  Dr.  C.  C.  Torrey  is 
alone  among  experts  in  his  strong  statement  that  the 
spoken  Greek  of  the  first  century  did  not  "even  re- 
motely" resemble  the  language  in  which  the  gospels 
were  written;  but  he  is  right,  I  think,  in  seeing  a 
Semitic  idiom  underlying  much  of  the  Greek  text,  tho 
this  Semitic  tinge  is  probably  due  more  to  ancestry  and 
the  Septuagint  than  to  any  other  causes  named  by  him.^** 
Nevertheless,  the  synoptic  gospels  and  Paul's  letters  are 
related  more  closely  in  grammer  and  style  to  the  papyri 
of  the  first  and  second  centuries  than  either  to  the 
classical  Greek  or  to  the  Septuagint.  Many  of  Paul's 
*'jumbled  phrases,"  and  the  piling  up  of  negatives  by 
other  New  Testament  writers  ( e.g.,  Mark  5:3;  John 
15:  5;  Luke  23:  53;  Heb.  13:  5;  Rev.  18:  14,  etc.)  can 
not  be  ascribed  any  longer  to  Hebrew  influence,  but  to 
the  uncouth,  unrevised  vernacular  which  was  commonly 
used  by  the  common  people  at  that  era.  Luke,  tho 
a  Gentile,  used  these  supposed  Semitisms  almost  as" 
freely  as  Matthew. 

Even  when  Mark  says  "Beware  of  the  scribes" 
(12:38),  this  must  not  be  regarded  as  a  Hebraism, 
since  in  a  letter  a.d.  41,  a  man  counsels  a  friend  who  is 
in  money  difficulties,  "Beware  of  the  Jews!" — this  evi- 
dently coming  from  the  pen  of  an  enemy,  and  being, 
so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  the  first  reference  to  this 
race  as  money-lenders  in  the  early  Christian  era. 

Generally  speaking,  the  language  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, like  that  of  the  papyri,  is  the  language  of  life 
and  not  of  books;  it  is  the  language  of  nature,  not  of 
the  schools.     Clearness  is  more  desired  than  elegance. 

'^  Studies  in  the  Hi.story  of  Religions,  1912,  pp.  264-317. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     117 

There  usually  is  no  effort  at  rhetorical  embellishinent.'^ 
The  Greek  of  the  New  Testament  compares  with  class- 
ical Greek  as  the  English  of  Pilgrim's  Progress  and 
Robinson  Crusoe  compares  with  the  English  of 
Macaulay  and  Browning  and  Emerson.  It  compares  in 
style  and  vocabulary  with  the  papyri  as  the  modern 
magazine  of  the  better  class  compares  in  style  and 
vocabulary  with  the  spoken  language.  This  permits 
in  the  Bible  writers  a  beautiful  simplicity  and  an  occa- 
sional sublimity  of  expression,  never  found  in  other 
papyri,  while  excluding  the  artificiality  and  affectation 
so  often  present  in  first  century  "classics."  Instead  of 
saying  bluntly,  as  has  been  common  of  late,  that  the 
New  Testament  literature  was  written  in  the  vernacu- 
lar, it  might  be  more  accurate  to  say  with  Wellhausen 
that  in  the  gospels  the  spoken  Greek  became  litera- 
ture.^" The  New  Testament  does  not  contain  the  vul- 
garities common  in  the  papyri,  but  lifts  this  spoken 
language  to  a  new  dignity.  No  letter  even  from  the 
most  cultured  Roman  has  been  found  equaling  in 
beauty  Paul's  note  written  to  the  owner  of  the  slave 
Onesimus,  where  the  play  on  this  man's  name — ''his 
name  is  Helpful  and  he  has  been  helpful  to  me" — 
adds  a  literary  charm  to  the  peculiar  Christian  teach- 
ing of  the  missive. 

It  may  be  profitably  noted  that  a  comparison  of 
the  New  Testament  letters  with  the  private  correspond- 
ence of  contemporaries  recently  discovered  shows  that 
St.  Paul  used  the  customary  polite  form  which  was 
universal  among  the  middle  classes  at  that  period. 
There  is  an  opening  address  or  greeting  followed  by  a 

'^  Robertson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  71-74. 

^  Eitjleitung  in  die  drci  ersten  Evangelien,  p.  9. 


ii8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

thanksgiving  and  prayer  for  the  one  to  whom  he  writes, 
followed  by  the  special  message  which  is  the  subject  of 
the  letter,  the  whole  being  closed  by  salutations  and 
perhaps  a  word  of  prayer.  It  is  now  known  for  the 
first  time  that  this  current  epistolary  phraseology  was 
so  common  as  to  be  almost  stereotyped. 

One  other  point  in  regard  to  New  Testament  style 
can  only  now  be  fully  appreciated.  The  letters  of  the 
New  Testament  and  of  the  papyri  were  usually  writ- 
ten to  dictation  and  therefore  must  be  read  aloud  to  be 
best  appreciated.^*'^  This  is  one  reason  for  the  vividness 
of  the  New  Testament  language.  Paul  expected  his 
letters  to  *'be  read  aloud  to  the  brethren"  (i  Thess. 
5:27),  and  any  letter  of  special  interest  to  be 
passed  from  church  to  church  (Col.  4:  16);  this  was 
without  doubt  in  accordance  with  the  expectation  o£ 
other  religious  teachers  at  that  time.  Even  when  a 
private  letter  was  written  the  writer  knew  that  if  he 
stated  anything  of  unusual  interest  the  neighbors 
would  be  called  in  to  hear  it  read,  so  that  even  in 
private  correspondence  an  audience  was  in  mind.  At 
the  end  of  a  most  unimportant  private  note  just  dis- 
covered, the  writer,  Serapion,  says:  "Copy  my  letter 
and  give  it  to  N.  N.  Do  not  forget  it.  I  pray  you  to 
do  it  well." '' 

*"'  Cf.  Milligan,  New  Test.  Documents,  p.  103. 

•*  For  a  most  interesting  general  discussion  of  the  style  of  St.  Paul  and 
other  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  see  further  Julicher,  Introduction  to 
the  New  Testament,  pp.  49-51 ;  and  Jacquier,  The  History  of  the  Books  of 
the  New  Test.,  pp.  27 ff. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     119 

4.  New  Light  Upon  the  Vocabulary  of  the 
New  Testament 

Of  the  5,000  words  or  more  in  the  Greek  New  Tes- 
tament about  3,000  are  found  in  ancient  Attic  writers. 
The  remainder  are  almost  all  taken  from  the  Koine  or 
popular  language  of  the  first  century.  Only  about 
twenty  Hebrew  words  appear  in  the  New  Testament, 
altho  it  has  not  been  many  years  since  hundreds  of 
such  words  were  acknowledged  by  scholars.  These 
supposedly  Hebrew  words  have  been  found,  however, 
in  the  non-Jewish  papyri  and  early  inscriptions.  A  few 
years  ago  Professor  Kennedy  ^^  found  about  550  words 
of  a  form  or  used  in  a  manner  which  he  believed  to  be 
peculiar  to  the  New  Testament;  but  to-day  Deissmann 
and  others  will  admit  only  about  fifty  such  words.^' 
Robertson  in  his  Grammar  of  the  Greek  New  Testa- 
ment in  the  Light  of  Historical  Research  (1914)  gives 
a  list  of  some  forty  words  which  were  supposed  to  be 
''Biblical"  until  they  were  found  recently  in  papyri, 
and  another  list  of  over  150  words  which,  tho  they  had 
been  thought  to  possess  a  meaning  peculiar  to  the 
Septuagint  or  the  New  Testament,  have  recently  been 
found  in  the  inscriptions  or  papyri.  Thayer  in  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible  ^*  gives  some  twenty-five  other 
words  common  to  the  New  Testament  and  the  vernac- 
ular, but  not  found  in  classic  Greek.  This  all  proves 
convincingly  that  "the  vocabulary  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  practically  the  same  as  that  of  the  vernacular 
in  the  Roman  empire  in  the  first  century  after  Christ" 
(Robertson). 

^Sources  of  New  Testament  Greek,  p.  62. 
'^  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  p.  72. 
'*  "Language  of  the  New  Testament." 


120     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Even  some  slang  words  were  used  by  the  New 
Testament  writers  in  order  to  give  force  to  their  state- 
ments among  the  "common  people."  While  this  was 
recognized  even  before  the  new  discoveries  in  the  case 
of  certain  colloquialisms  like  oxvKk(a  "worry"  (Matt. 
9:  36)  and  'UJicojiid^co  (Luke  18:  5) — which  really 
means  "punish"  in  the  slang  of  the  prize-ring,  as  also 
the  kindred  word  in  i  Cor.  9 :  2y,  where  Paul  speaks 
of  "giving  it  to"  his  body  (Expositor,  4:29-35) — yet 
the  papyri  have  opened  up  a  large  new  field  wh-ere  this 
popular  phraseology  can  be  for  the  first  time  fully 
appreciated. 

The  abbreviation  of  personal  names,  which  has 
long  been  recognized  in  the  Bible  MSS.,  finds  a  con- 
stant equivalent  in  the  newly  discovered  papyri,  pet 
names  being  as  commonly  used  then  as  now.  Such 
examples  in  the  New  Testament  occur  in  Tit.  3:  12,  13; 
Rom.  16:  7;  8,  14;  Rev.  2:  13,  etc.  It  gives  a  touch  of 
life  seldom  connected  with  the  New  Testament  writings 
to  think  of  Apollos  (Acts  18:24),  Epaphras  (Col. 
1:7),  Cleopas  (Luke  24:18),  Silas  (Acts  15:22), 
and  Luke  (everywhere  in  Paul's  letters),  appearing  in 
this  familiar  abbreviated  form. 

It  must  not  be  imagined,  however,  that  there  is 
nothing  original  in  the  vocabulary  or  content  of  words 
in  the  New  Testament.  While  it  is  a  great  surprize  to 
find  that  many  of  the  supposed  new  words  in  the 
New  Testament,  such  as  "love-feast,"  "baptism," 
"Logos,"  "anathema,"  "presbyter,"  "bishop,"  "church" 
(exxXriaia),  etc.,  are  used  in  the  papyri  without  Chris- 
tian implication,  showing  that  the  names  of  Christian 
rites  and  church  officers  grew  up  naturally  out  of  the 
existing    conditions    and    were    copied    from    existing 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     121 

forms;  yet  it  is  equally  clear  that  many  Christian  terms, 
altho  used  in  the  papyri,  receive  a  new  technical  or 
spiritual  sense  in  the  Biblical  writings.  Christianity, 
the  greatest  religious  movement  which  ever  affected 
civilization,  produced  also  an  eft"ect  upon  language  by 
the  formation  of  new  ideas  and  the  modification  of  ©Id 
ones.^^''' 

The  Xew  Testament  is  as  different  from  the  papyri 
in  its  charm  and  spiritual  elevation  as  from  the  ancient 
classics.  It  used  the  common  language  of  its  day,  but 
it  glorified  and  spiritualized  it.  Our  latest  and  great- 
est Xew  Testament  grammarian  gives  a  list  of  sixty- 
five  words  and  phrases  which,  tho  Greek,  were  the 
s}Tnbols  of  quite  other  than  Greek  ideas,  having  in  the 
Xew  Testament  a  totally  new  connotation  (Robertson. 
op.  cit.,  p.  115).  Among  these  the  following  well- 
known  terms  are  conspicuous:  "Charity"  or  *'love," 
"holy,"  "sanctified,"  "brother,"  "recompense,"  "re- 
demption," "damnation,"  "apostle,"  "kingdom,"  "bap- 
tism," "justify,"  "righteous,"  "peace,"  "the  Church," 
"elect,"  "hope,"  "converted,"  "gospel,"  "life,''  "death," 
"liberty,"  "priest,"  "the  called,"  "atonement,"  "the 
world,"  "fellowship,"  "ransom,"  "repentance,"  "the 
Way,"  "comforter,"  "faith,"  "to  believe,"  "the  Spirit," 
"spiritual,"  "stumbling-block,"  "the  flesh,"  "the  cross," 
"conscience,"  "salvation,"  "Savior,"  "humility,"  "Son 
of  God,"  "Son  of  Man,"  "adoption,"  "grace,"  "natural" 
(vs.  "spiritual"),  etc.  To  this  list  others  might  be 
added  such  as  the  "Word,"  "minister,"  "the  parousia," 
"mystery,"  "eucharist,"  etc.,  representing  either  new 
words  or  old  words  with  a  new  meaning  when  found 
in  the  X'^ew  Testament.    It  has  been  well  said  that  these 

***  So  even  Deissmann  states.  Ency.  Bib.,  article  "Papyri." 


122     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

words  with  their  new  meanings  contain  in  large  part 
**the  history  of  Christianity." 

No  one,  unless  he  has  had  the  same  experience,  can 
even  imagine  the  excitement  which  comes  to  the  student 
who,  when  looking  over  a  mass  of  blurred  and  broken 
papyri,  suddenly  catches  sight  of  some  well-known 
Biblical  term.  Such  excitement  came  to  the  writer  not 
an  hour  ago,  when  as  he  examined  certain  ancient 
scraps  which  he  had  recently  obtained  in  the  Fayum  and 
which  likely  no  one  had  ever  glanced  at  before  except 
the  fellaheen,  he  caught  sight  of  the  word  |iia^6v 
("wages").  This  word  is  found  three  times  repeated 
by  Jesus  in  the  phrase  "they  have  their  reward"  (Matt. 
6:2,  5,  16).  Now  the  verb  (djiexco),  used  here  in  con- 
nection with  this  term,  is  found  scores  of  times  in  the 
papyri  in  the  sense  of  "receipt  in  full."  It  is  a  tech- 
nical expression  which  Deissmann  first  recognized  as 
giving  a  new  and  most  vivid  meaning  to  the  words 
of  Jesus.  He  was  speaking  of  the  long  prayers  which 
the  Pharisees  made  on  the  corners  of  the  streets  "to  be 
seen  of  man,"  and  with  quiet  irony  he  says  of  them: 
"Verily  they  have  received  in  full  their  reward" — that 
is,  they  need  not  expect  any  answer  to  their  prayers 
from  God,  since  they  pray  to  be  seen  of  men.  They 
have  "received  in  full"  the  answer  to  their  prayer  when 
men  look  at  them  as  they  pray!  Paul  also  uses  this 
verb  in  the  same  sense  (Phil.  4:  18),  saying:  "I  give 
you  a  receipt  in  full  for  all  things"  and  "abound"  be- 
cause of  your  kindness. 

Another  instance  in  which  the  new  light  cast  upon 
the  exact  local  meaning  of  a  word  has  made  more 
vivid  the  New  Testament  text  can  be  found  in  the 
reference  to  Jesus  Christ  as  having  been  openly  "set 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     123 

forth"  as  crucified  before  the  Galatians  (Gal.  3:1); 
for  in  one  papyrus  a  father  uses  this  same  term  (jiqo- 
Ypaqpffvai)  when  he  speaks  of  having  "placarded"  or 
caused  a  notice  "to  be  posted  up,"  declaring  that  he 
would  no  longer  be  responsible  for  his  son's  debts  see- 
ing he  had  squandered  his  own  goods  in  "riotous  liv- 
ing." '' 

Another  term  long  ago  explained  by  Professor 
Mahafify,^^  but  recently  illustrated  by  the  papyri,  which 
gives  a  new  and  important  meaning  to  a  Scripture  pas- 
sage is  jtaiSaycoyog,  translated  "school-master"  (Gal. 
3:24).  This  well-known  individual  was  not  the  head 
master,  but  at  best  an  inferior  instructor,  often  being 
merely  a  faithful  slave  whose  chief  duty  was  to  bring 
his  master's  sons  safely  to  and  from  school,  guarding 
them  from  mischief  on  the  way.  When  St.  Paul  said 
the  "law  was  the  pedagog"  to  lead  us  to  Christ,  it  was 
Christ  of  whom  he  thought  as  the  true  "teacher,"  the 
Old  Testament  law  being  only  the  Father's  trusty 
servant  to  bring  the  world  to  him.  Multitudes  of  such 
suggestions  of  a  more  vivid  meaning  in  the  original 
Bible  terms  might  be  mentioned,  as  for  example,  when 
we  find  St.  Paul  counting  up  the  honors  and  hopes  of 
his  youth  and  declaring  that  he  counted  all  these  things 
which  he  had  given  up  to  be  "loss"  for  Christ  (Phil. 
3:8).  How  it  strengthens  this  expression  when  we 
find  that  a  papyrus  uses  this  same  word  (^r]\iia}  for 
the  bones  thrown  out  on  the  street  to  the  dogs ! 

Another  important  term  (uojaTriQiov)  which  occurs 
a  score  of  times  in  the  New  Testament  meets  us  often 
in  the  papyri.     Jesus  speaks   of  "the  mystery  of  the 

"^The  word  used  is  dacotevonEVOi;,  corresponding  exactly  to  that  used 
in  Luke  15  :  13. 

"  Greek  Education,  p.  29. 


124     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

kingdom  of  God"  (Mark  4:  11),  and  Paul  again  and 
again  of  ''the  mystery  which  was  kept  secret,"  "the 
wisdom  of  God  in  a  mystery"  (e.g.,  Rom.  16:25;  i 
Cor.  2:y).  We  usually  think  of  a  mystery  as  some- 
thing hidden;  but  in  the  New  Testament  it  means 
something  revealed.  It  had  been  "kept  secret"  and 
was  still  hidden  to  the  world  in  general;  but  this  mys- 
tery of  God's  nature  and  God's  will  had  now  been 
"made  known"  (Eph.  3:3;  6:  19).  The  full  meaning 
of  these  expressions  can  hardly  be  understood  unless 
we  bear  in  mind  that  the  best  religious  force  in  the 
first  century  was  found  in  the  mystery  cults,  which 
sought  to  bring  the  ancient  world  out  of  its  materialism 
and  debauchery  into  a  serious  consideration  of  these 
"mysteries"  of  God — the  unity  of  the  worshiper  with 
deity;  salvation  and  the  future  life.  These  matters 
were  absolutely  dark  to  the  pagan  world  in  general; 
but  they  were  supposed  to  be  revealed  to  the  "initiated." 
Paul  again  and  again  uses  symbols  and  terms  con- 
nected with  these  mystic  rites.  He  does  not,  of  course, 
accept  the  doctrine  of  these  heathen  fraternities;  but 
he  represents  the  Christian  Church  as  being  also  a 
mystery-fraternity  in  which  the  profoundest  secrets  of 
God  are  made  plain  to  the  initiated  through  the  revela- 
tion of  the  head  master,  Jesus;  and  the  terminology 
which  he  uses  was  a  mystic  terminology  which  the 
new  discoveries  have  found  in  the  contemporary  mys- 
tery documents,  the  meaning  of  which  would  be  easily 
grasped,  therefore,  by  his  hearers  and  readers,  most 
of  whom  were  accustomed  to  them.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  ten  of  the  twenty-six  times  in  which  this  word 
"mystery"  is  used  in  the  New  Testament,  it  is  found  in 
Ephesians   and   Colossians.      These   mysteries   encour- 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     125 

aged  purification  by  lustration,  a  "new  birth,"  and  sac- 
ramental communion  with  the  deity.  Gold  tablets 
found  in  tombs  in  widely  separated  districts  show  the 
same  aspiration  on  the  part  of  these  devotees: 

"I  am  the  son  of  earth  and  heaven  ...  I  came 
from  the  pure  ...  I  have  paid  the  penalty  of  unright- 
eousness ...  I  have  flown  out  of  the  weary,  sorrow- 
ful circle  of  life.  .  .  .  Oh,  blessed  and  happy  are  those 
who  have  put  off  their  immortality  and  become  divine." 

Notwithstanding  recent  criticisms/^  the  researches 
of  Reitzenstein,^^  with  the  enormous  mass  of  docu- 
ments which  he  produces,  must  be  accepted  as  con- 
clusively proving  the  close  relation  between  the  Pauline 
and  mystery  vocabularies.  St.  Paul  was  sensible 
enough  to  use  with  discretion  this  point  of  contact  with 
the  Greek  people  who  had  grown  up  in  the  atmosphere 
of  these  mystic  cults,  the  nature  and  process  of  the 
salvation  through  Jesus  the  Christ  being  put  in  strik- 
ing contrast  with  that  proclaimed  by  the  Isis  or  Mithra 
mystics.  He  used  the  current  religious  vocabulary  to 
teach  a  new  doctrine.  Salvation  and  immortality  is  not 
reached  by  magic  or  ritual  or  deification;  but  by  re- 
generation of  the  spirit  and  unity,  not  with  a  mythical 
personage,  but  with  the  living  Christ,  this  "new  birth" 
leading  on  to  a  new  life  of  holiness  utterly  unknown, 
so  far  as  the  evidence  shows,  to  initiates  of  any  other 
religion.^^ 

Some  striking  illustrations  of  New  Testament 
usages  have  come  from  the  papyri,  thus  approving 
translations  of  the  New  Testament  texts  which  pre- 
viously had  been  doubtful.     Thus  in   i   Cor.    16:  i.  a 

^^  E.g.,  Kennedy,  5"^.  Paul  and  the  Mystery  Religions,  1913. 

^^  Die  hellenistischen  Mysterienreligionen,  1910. 

^*See  this  point  well  stated  by  Kennedy,  op.  cit.,  pp.  211-218,  280-299. 


126     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

unique  Greek  word  (Xoyeia)  was  translated  "collection"; 
this  same  word  has  recently  been  found  with  the  same 
meaning  in  some  papyri.  So  also  another  word 
(8A,A,oYaco)  used  by  St.  Paul  when  he  bids  Philemon 
"put  down  to  his  account"  any  loss  he  may  have  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  Onesimus  (verse  i8),  has  been 
found  in  several  papyri  with  exactly  the  same  meaning. 
When  Paul  speaks  of  those  who  are  "unsettling"  his 
converts  (Gal.  5:  12)  he  uses  a  word  very  common 
in  the  papyri,  where  a  man  who  is  being  driven  to  the 
wall  in  money  matters  pleads  with  a  creditor,  "Do  not 
upset  me";  and  in  another  case  a  mother  complains  of 
her  naughty  boy,  "He  is  upsetting  me!"  (c/.  Acts 
17:6).  An  even  more  impressive  illustration  of  the 
new  meaning  given  by  the  papyri  to  New  Testament 
expressions  may  be  found,  Mark  6 :  8,  where  Jesus  sent 
out  his  apostles  telling  them  to  take  "no  bread,  no 
wallet,  no  money."  The  wallet  mentioned  is  now  seen 
not  to  have  been  a  mere  traveling  bag,  as  was  formerly 
supposed,  but  almost  certainly  a  beggar's  "collecting 
bag,"  such  as  peripatetic  religious  teachers  were  accus- 
tomed to  carry  at  that  time,  for  it  is  called  by  this  same 
name  (nr\Qa).  Our  Lord  means  to  teach  that  his  dis- 
ciples are  to  go  out  as  laymen  not  in  any  special  minis- 
terial garb  or  making  any  special  claim  of  mendicant 
piety,  but  nevertheless  dependent  for  their  living  upon 
those  who  "receive"  the  word.**^ 

Deissmann,  after  a  careful  study  of  the  papyri, 
shows  the  depth  and  originality  of  the  term  "in  Christ 
Jesus"  as  used  by  Paul.  Here  we  find  the  mystic  in- 
dwelling of  God  in  man  unmistakably  and  constantly 

^Tor  very  many  of  the  above  suggestions  I  am  indebted  to  Deissmann, 
as  also  for  those  which  immediately  follow.  See  Light  from  the  Ancient 
East,  chapters  ii.  and  iv. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     127 

declared  in  a  sense  utterly  inscrutable  to  the 
heathen. 

The  title  "Lord"  as  given  to  Jesus  is  also  now  seen 
from  the  papyri  to  have  had  a  deeper  meaning  than 
we  had  ever  supposed.  The  fact  that  the  Emperors, 
when  they  became  deified,  as  began  to  be  common  in  the 
first  century,  were  addrest  as  "God,"  "Son  of  God," 
"Lord,"  "Savior  of  the  world,"  etc.,  gives  a  new  point 
to  the  common  use  of  these  titles  for  Jesus.  For  the 
first  time  we  possess  a  new  argument  for  the  deity  of 
Jesus  Christ,  since  the  title  K'UQiog  "Lord"  could  be 
used  only  after  the  Caesar  had  been  acknowledged  as 
God.  We  now  see  that  the  term  KiJQiog,  l^oovg  (Lord 
Jesus)  was  a  distinct  ascription  of  deity  to  Christ,  and 
that  its  use  must  almost  have  been  accounted  an  act  of 
direct  antagonism  to  the  claims  of  the  Roman  Emperor. 
Indeed,  the  exact  phrase  by  which  deity  was  ascribed  to 
Jesus — "Great  God  and  Savior"  (Tit.  2:  13;  2  Peter 
i:  i) — appears  letter  for  letter  in  an  inscription  2  B.C., 
in  which  the  Emperor  is  given  this  title;  tho  of  course 
the  difference  in  meaning  as  read  by  a  Christian  and 
by  a  heathen  was  heaven  high.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten in  this  connection  that  6  KiJQiog  is  constantly 
used  in  the  Septuagint  as  a  title  of  God. 

St.  Paul's  confession  of  our  "Lord"  Jesus  Christ, 
like  the  complemental  thought  that  the  worshipers  were 
"slaves"  of  the  Lord,  was  understood  in  its  full  mean- 
ing by  everybody  in  the  Hellenistic  East.  This  be- 
comes still  clearer  if  we  compare,  for  instance,  St.  Paul's 
expression,  "the  table  of  the  Lord"  (i  Cor.  10:21), 
with  the  analogous  Egyptian  expression  concerning 
their  chief  deity,  "the  table  of  the  Lord  Serapis,"  re- 
cently discovered  in  a  papyrus.     So  when  a  number  of 


128     Tllli  NEW  ARCIIEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

papyri  and  ostraca  recently  discovered  speak  of  Nero  as 
"the  Lord,"  this  is  exactly  synonymous  with  the  inscrip- 
tions calling  him  ''the  God."  This  is  the  reason  St.  Paul 
insists  that  Jesus  Christ  is  "our  only  Master  and  Lord" 
(i  Cor.  8:  5,  6).  No  one  can  confess  Jesus  Christ  as 
"Lord"  (KijQiog),  l)ut  by  the  Holy  Ghost  (i  Cor. 
12:3);  yet  every  tongue  shall  "confess  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  Lord"  (Phil.  2:9,  11).  This  claim  of  deity 
wrapt  up  in  the  word  explains  why  Polycarp  went 
to  martyrdom  rather  than  to  say  "Lord  Csesar."  ^^ 

All  of  this,  as  Deissmann  shows,  throws  a  brilliant 
light  upon  the  adjective,  "the  Lord's,"  that  is,  "belong- 
ing to  the  Lord"  (xvQiaxog),  as  used  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. So  ordinarily  used,  the  "Lord's  Day"  meant 
"Emperor's  day."  So  "Christian"  (XQiotiavog)  meant 
originally  an  imperial  slave  (Deissmann),  or  soldier 
(Souter),  belonging  to  the  divine  Christ,  just  as 
"Caesarian"  (KaiaaQiavog)  meant  slave  or  soldier  of 
the  Caesar.  In  the  same  way  "freedman  of  the  Lord" 
(i  Cor.  7:22)  corresponds  to  "freedman  of  the  em- 
peror" {cf.  John  15:  14),  and  the  phrases  so  common 
with  the  early  Christians,  "friend  of  Christ"  and  "ac- 
quainted with  God,"  correspond  exactly  to  the  words 
in  the  inscriptions  "friend  of  the  Emperor"  and  "ac- 
quainted with  the  Emperor."  So  the  Biblical  word 
used  for  the  ransomed  sinner  is  used  for  manumitted 
slaves.  This  manumission  was  always  accompanied 
by  the  blood  of  sacrifice  (the  law  allowed  slavery  for 
debts) ;  therefore  remission  of  debts  was  "blotting  out 
of  the  bond"  (Col.  2:  14),  and  this  was  accomplished 

"  See  Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  355,  360;  cf.  Moulton,  Prolegomena,  p.  84^^; 
Robertson,  Grammar,  p.  786;  J.  Weiss,  Urchristciithum,  p.  330^';  Case, 
Evolution  of  Early  Christianity,  pp.  109-116;  195-239. 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     129 

in  the  first  century  by  marking  a  cross  over  the  writ- 
ing (Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  332,  337). 

This  is  only  a  hint  of  what  the  papyri  have  done  for 
us  in  giving  new  shades  of  meaning  to  New  Testament 
language.  To  be  sure,  many  of  the  proper  names  and 
technical  terms  used  in  the  New  Testament  are  Semitic, 
and  a  number  of  words  common  in  the  gospels,  but 
rare  in  the  papyri,  were  evidently  derived  directly  from 
the  Septuagint;  yet  as  we  turn  the  pages  of  Moulton 
and  Milligan's  Vocabulary  of  the  Greek  Testament 
(Parts  I  and  II,  1914-1916),  there  is  not  a  leaf  which 
does  not  show  some  new  light  from  the  papyri  on  some 
well-known  Biblical  word.  For  example,  selecting  in- 
stances quite  at  random,  Jesus  is  said  not  merely  to  have 
been  "slain"  but  actually  ''murdered."  (Acts  10:  39) ;  the 
men  who  raised  a  riot  against  Silas  and  Paul  at  Thessa- 
lonica  (Acts  17:  5)  were  not  merely  lewd  fellows  of 
the  baser  .sort,  but  "market-place  agitators" ;  Peter  and 
John  (Acts  4:  13),  and  Jesus  also  (John  7:  15),  were 
actually  declared  by  their  calumniators  (according  to 
the  common  meaning  of  the  word)  to  be  unable  to 
write;  John  Baptist  was  not  counted  worthy  to  "take 
off"  his  Master's  sandals  (Matt.  3:  11);  Paul  was  not 
only  beaten  "uncondemned"  but  also  "untried"  (Acts 
16:  37;  22:  25) ;  he  is  called  not  simply  an  architect,  but 
rather  "chief  engineer"  (i  Cor.  3:  10) ;  Mnason  was  not 
an  "aged"  disciple,  but  an  "original"  disciple  (Acts 
21:16);  Jesus  is  not  called  the  "captain"  but  the 
"originator"  of  our  salvation  (Heb.  2:  10) ;  God  is  not 
an  "austere"  but  an  "exacting"  employer  (Luke 
19:21);  Judas  not  only  "bare"  but  "bare  off"  {i.e., 
stole)  the  "bag" — i.e.,  as  the  papyri  show,  the  "money 
bag"  (John  12:  6) ;  Jesus  is  set  forth  as  an  "example" 


I30     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

in  the  sense  of  "sample"  or  ''pattern"  (Jude  7) ;  Paul's 
prayers  (Phil.  1:4)  become  "strong  entreaties"; 
"doubting"  (i  Tim.  2:  8)  becomes  "debating";  "I  have 
kept  the  faith"  (2  Tim.  4:7)  is  changed  to  the  very 
strong  statement,  "I  have  guarded  my  trust" ;  while  the 
apostle's  "thorn"  in  the  flesh  becomes  a  "stake";  tho 
the  "beam"  in  the  eye  of  the  Pharisaic  critic  (Matt. 
y.  2>)  ^ow  becomes  the  less  dangerous  but  more  irrita- 
ting "splinter." 

These  changes  may  seem  small,  but  they  are  not 
inconsequential  if  they  actually  give  more  perfectly  the 
sense  of  the  inspired  Word;  and  there  are  many  other 
changes  more  significant,  e.g.,  the  "immutability"  of 
God's  counsel  (Heb.  6:  17)  gains  strength  when  we 
notice  that  the  word  used  is  the  technical  term 
common  in  wills  which  could  not  be  altered;  our  "calling 
and  election"  is  made  "legally  secure"  (2  Peter  i :  10)  ; 
and  the  word  spoken  to  angels  is  "guaranteed"  to  us 
(Heb.  2:2);  the  "fruits  of  the  earth"  (Matt.  26:29; 
Mark  14:  25),  the  orthography  of  which  was  universally 
accepted  as  a  blunder  of  the  New  Testament  manu- 
scripts, is  now  attested  by  a  multitude  of  papyri;  while 
the  injunction,  "Let  him  have  thy  cloak  also"  (Matt. 
5:40),  gets  a  new  force  when  we  find  a  pawnbroker 
disposing  of  one  of  these  outer  garments  for  2,700 
drachmae  of  copper;  Thomas  Didymus  "the  twin"  (John 
II :  16)  appears  to  us  in  a  new  light  when  we  notice  the 
custom  of  naming  boys  "twin"  with  direct  reference  to 
Castor  and  Pollux,  the  patron  saints  of  heathen  sailors 
in  the  first  century  of  our  era;  while  the  scornful 
reference  of  our  Lord  to  the  "vain  repetitions"  (the 
"blather")  of  the  praying  hypocrites  (Matt.  6:y),  be- 
comes  more  marked  when  we  notice  that   this  very 


LANGUAGE  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT     131 

Greek  root  occurs  in  the  sneering  nickname  of  Demos- 
thenes as  the  ''babbler''  (^dxxa'koq) . 

This  Hst  could  be  immeasurably  increased,  but  per- 
haps we  have  given  a  sufficient  number  of  instances  to 
illustrate  the  value  of  the  papyri  in  illuminating  the 
New  Testament  vocabulary.  Many  others  will  appear 
later  in  the  course  of  the  discussion/^ 

"  Greek  students  who  may  not  feel  able  to  purchase  the  incomparable 
"Vocabulary"  of  Moulton  and  Milligan   (Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1914,  ff.), 
with  its  detailed  references  to  the  papyri,  will  find  it  much  to  their  advan- 
\tage  to  obtain  Prof.  Alex.  Souter's  little  Pocket  Lexicon  (Oxford,  Claren- 
don Press,  1916),  which  constantly  makes  use  of  the  new  knowledge. 


Ill 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  RECENTLY 
DISCOVERED 

I.  Greek  New  Testaments 

The  writer  was  working  in  London  University 
when  the  first  sensational  discovery  was  made  of  a  leaf 
from  a  pocket  Bible  which  had  been  carried  by  an 
Egyptian  Christian  of  the  third  century.  This  leaf  was 
a  hundred  years  older  than  any  other  fragment  of 
Scripture  previously  known.  It  was  written  on  poor 
papyrus  in  a  fairly  good  hand  and  well  represented  the 
New  Testaments  which  were  being  used  by  poor  men 
in  the  days  of  the  martyrs.  The  book  must  originally 
have  been  composed  of  tw-enty-four  or  twenty-five 
sheets  of  papyrus. 

Only  those  who  have  come  personally  into  close 
touch  with  supremely  important  discoveries  can  un- 
derstand with  what  eagerness  this  discolored  leaf 
was  examined  by  every  one  interested  in  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  New  Testament  writings.  It  had  been 
written  generations  before  the  great  council  of  Con- 
stantine — was  it  the  same  Biblical  text  as  that  which 
in  uninterrupted  succession  continued  to  be  used  from 
the  fourth  century  onward  ?  The  whole  tone  of  modern 
New  Testament  criticism  was  changed  for  the  better 
when  it  was  found  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  slightly 
different  spelling  of  three  proper  names,  David,  Zerah, 
and  Amminadab,  and  the  omission  of  two  articles  be- 
fore proper  names,   this  oldest  extant  manuscript  of 

r  132  ] 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     133 

the  New  Testament  agreed  exactly  with  the  Westcott 
and  Hort  Greek  text  which  formed  the  basis  of  our 
Revised  Version — having  even  the  same  abbreviations 
and  one  wrongly  placed  rough  breathing.  It  looked 
as  if  the  Church  of  the  martyrs  possest  the  same  New 
Testament  as  our  fathers  revered. 

(l)    ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  PREVIOUSLY  KNOWN 

Previous  to  this  discovery  the  oldest  Greek  manu- 
scripts known  to  be  in  existence  were  those  now  to  be 
described. 
Codex  Sinaiticus. 

It  was  just  fifty-two  years  before  this  discovery  at 
Oxyrhynchus  that  Dr.  Constantine  Tischendorf  dis- 
covered in  the  Convent  of  St.  Catharine  at  Mt.  Sinai 
this  most  famous  of  all  manuscripts.  The  discovery  as 
he  himself  told  it  was  most  picturesque: 

"I  perceived  in  the  middle  of  the  great  hall  a  large  and  wide 
basket  full  of  old  parchments  ;  and  the  librarian  who  was  a  man  of 
information  told  me  that  two  heaps  of  papers  like  this  mouldered 
by  time  had  been  already  committed  to  the  flames.  What  was  my 
surprise  to  find  amid  this  heap  of  papers  a  considerable  number 
of  sheets  of  a  copy  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Greek  which  seemed 
to  me  to  be  one  of  the  most  ancient  I  had  ever  seen.  The 
authorities  of  the  Convent  allowed  me  to  possess  myself  of  a  third 
of  these  parchments  or  about  45  sheets  all  the  more  readily  as 
they  were  destined  for  the  fire.  But  I  could  not  get  them  to  yield 
up  possession  of  the  remainder."  -^ 

In  1853  a  second  journey  was  made,  but  no  further 
traces  of  the  treasure  of  1844  was  found.  But  on  Feb. 
7,  1859,  having  again  reached  the  convent  through 
the  favor  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  he  was  shown  a 
bulky  volume  wrapt  in  a  red  cloth. 

^Narrative  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Sinaitic  Manuscript,  1866,  p.  28. 


134     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"I  unrolled  the  cover  and  discovered  to  my  surprise  not  only 
those  very  fragments  which  fifteen  years  before  I  had  taken  out 
of  the  basket,  but  also  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  New 
Testament  complete  and  in  addition  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  and 
a  part  of  the  'Pastor  of  Hennas/  ...  I  knew  that  I  held  in  my 
hands  the  most  precious  Biblical  treasure  in  existence,  a  document 
whose  age  and  importance  exiceeded  that  of  all  the  manuscripts 
which  I  had  ever  examined  during  twenty  years  of  study  of  the 
subject.  .  .  .  On  the  27th  of  September  I  returned  to  Cairo. 
The  monks  and  archbishops  then  warmly  expressed  their  thanks 
for  my  jealous  efforts  in  their  cause  and  the  following  day  I  re- 
ceived from  them,  under  the  form  of  a  loan,  the  Sinaitic  Bible  to 
carry  to  St.  Petersburg  and  there  to  have  it  copied  as  accurately 
as  possible.  I  set  out  for  Egypt  early  in  October  and  on  the 
19th  of  November  I  presented  to  their  Imperial  Majesties  in  the 
Winter  Palace  at  Tsarkoe-Selo  my  rich  collection  of  old  Greek, 
Syriac,  Coptic,  Arabic,  and  other  manuscripts  in  the  middle  of 
which  the  Sinaitic  Bible  shone  like  a  crown."  ^ 

Dr.  Tischendorf  well  considered  this  discovery- 
greater  than  that  of  the  "koh-i-noor  of  the  Queen  of 
England."  The  manuscript  still  remains  as,  perhaps, 
the  greatest  Biblical  treasure  of  Europe ;  tho  the  present 
writer  can  testify  that  the  monks  at  Mt.  Sinai  have  no 
words  too  bitter  for  the  man  who  carried  it  off.  It 
should  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  Czar  in  1869 
sent  to  the  monks  of  St.  Catharine  7,000  rubles  and 
various  decorations  in  return  for  this  manuscript,  and 
no  written  protest  against  this  settlement  is  known  to 
exist. 

This  most  important  manuscript  is  accepted  by  all 
competent  authorities  as  dating  from  the  fourth  cen- 
tury and  is  practically  complete.  It  can  now  be  ex- 
amined by  scholars  in  a  photographic  edition  taken  in 
St.  Petersburg  in  1908  by  Helen  and  Kirsopp  Lake 
with   help   of   Dr.    Kenyon,   Dr.    Hunt,   etc.     It   is   a 

'  Ibid.,  pp.  29-35,  40. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     135 

vellum  manuscript  written  in  four  columns,  forty- 
eight  lines  to  each  page.  It  contained  originally 
the  entire  Bible,  and  the  New  Testament  is  still 
complete.  Some  time  between  the  fifth  and  seventh 
century  after  Christ  the  manuscript  lay  in  the  library 
at  Csesarea,  which  was  one  of  the  three  great  libraries 
of  the  Christian  world  as  early  as  the  third  century,  the 
other  two  being  at  Jerusalem  and  Alexandria.  This 
library  was  famotis  in  the  day  of  Eusebius  and  was  used 
by  St.  Jerome  (b.  a.d.  345),  who  said  that  the  original 
Biblical  papyri  preserved  here  were  wearing  out  in  his 
time  and  were  being  recopied  in  parchment.  This 
library  was  probably  destroyed  by  the  Arabs  a.d.  630, 
and  it  is  very  likely  that  this  precious  manuscript  was 
at  that  time  carried  from  Csesarea  to  Mt.  Sinai  by 
refugees.  It  was  not  written  by  the  same  scribe  as 
wrote  the  Codex  Vaticanus,  tho  they  probably  belonged 
to  the  same  scriptorium;  neither  was  it  one  of  Con- 
stantine's  copies  made  for  Constantinople.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  it  was  originally  written  at  Caesarea,  tho  it  is 
almost  certain  that  it  came  from  Egypt,  probably 
Alexandria;  its  date  is  between  a.d.  340-367,  the 
earlier  year  being  the  more  probable  date.^  The  manu- 
script is  a  fine  parchment  made  from  the  skin  of  some 
rather  large  animal,  perhaps  an  antelope  as  Tischen- 
dorf  suggested.  The  original  text  was  written  by 
three  or  four  scribes,  a  few  notes  and  corrections  being 
made  later. 

Codex  Vaticanus. 

An  uncial  manuscript  of  the  fourth  century,  being 
practically  of  the  same  age  as  the  Codex  Sinaiticus, 
tho  it  is  now  generally  held  by  textual  critics  to  be  a 

'Codex  Sinaiticus,  by  Helen  and  Kirsopp  Lake,  1911,  p.  xv. 


136    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

little  older.^  It  originally  contained  the  whole  Bible, 
but  is  now  lacking  in  the  Old  Testament,  Gen.  1-46,  Ps. 
105-137,  and  in  the  New  Testament,  Heb.  9:  14  to  end; 
I  and  2  Timothy;  Titus;  Philemon  and  Revelation.  It 
was  written  by  three  scribes,  the  text  being  corrected 
by  two,  one  of  these  being  a  contemporary  of  the 
original  writer,  and  the  other  of  the  tenth  or  eleventh 
century.  The  latter  probably  re-inked  the  manuscript, 
unless  this  was  done  by  a  monk  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. It  is  first  mentioned  in  the  catalog  of  the  Vatican 
in  148 1.  Pope  Sixtus  V  made  it  the  basis  of  an  edi- 
tion of  the  Greek  Old  Testament  in  1580,  thereby  de- 
termining the  ''received  text"  of  that  portion  of  the 
Bible.  Tho  used  by  Rome  it  was  not  published  to 
scholars  until  1828-38  (5  vols.),  and  then  very  in- 
accurately. A  better  edition  followed  (1868-81),  and 
new  phototypic  editions  were  published  1890  and  1905. 
The  manuscript  is  of  parchment,  three  columns  on 
each  page,  and  much  resembles  Codex  Alexandrinus 
in  its  form.  It  was  reckoned  as  the  chief  authority 
among  MSS.  for  the  Greek  Testament  of  Westcott  and 
Hort.  It  is  the  best  example  of  the  so-called  "Neutral" 
text,  except  in  the  Pauline  epistles,  where  it  has  a 
strong  "Western"  element. 

Codex  Alexandrinus. 

This  is  another  most  famous  New  Testament  manu- 
script. It  contains  almost  the  entire  Bible  and  at  the 
foot  of  the  first  page  of  Genesis  is  a  note  written  in 
Arabic : 

"Made  an  inalienable  gift  to  the  Patriarchal  Cell  in  the  City 
of  Alexandria.  Whosoever  shall  remove  it  thence  shall  be  ac- 
cursed and  cut  off.    Written  by  Athanasitis  the  humble." 

*Kenyon,  Handbook,  1912,  p.  77. 


E5 

I 

fef^l 

9 

E[Ji 

fl 

I^^H^iflHj^^    fl 

ps 

ri 

AUGUSTUS 

2"    B.C. 


^^^^^  ' 

■■H| 

^Rki.' 

^1 

P 

>--. 
^ 

K 

> 

^ 

'i 

^ 

r 

VESPASIAN 

A.D.    69 


CONSTANTINE 
A.D.  311 


ROMAN   EMPERORS 


Busts  more  or  less  recently  discovered,   of  some  Roman  Emperors  who   were  in  some  way   vitally   connected  with 

the  development  of  early  Christianity 


r^r 


^e:^T 


■  ,       It 


"fSw 


•€irfT 


^  H  :^  e-N  p^ N  vi  A '*«•*-> K/  rv  ;..*fc«*r  ("/sr-t^  *  , 


->!  (s^  C-  3^r  S.f'f--*^' 'f  '   \ 


^ 


if 


LEAF  FROM  ST.   MATTHEWS  GOSPEL   (THIRD  CENTURY) 
From   "The   Oxyrliynohus  Tapyri,"   Part  I,   Plate  1.       (Kgypt   Kxplnration  Fundi 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     137 

This  "humble"  scribe  was  probably  the  Melchite 
patriarch  who  died  a.d.  1308.  Another  note  in  Arabic 
of  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century,  written  back 
of  the  Table  of  Books,  records  the  fact  that  the  manu- 
script was  written  by  the  martyr  Thecla,  but  this  is 
probably  inaccurate. 

The  manuscript  is  on  very  fine  vellum  and  consists 
of  773  leaves,  measuring  12%  x  10  inches.  The  text 
is  written  in  double  columns  and  the  opening  lines  of 
each  book  and  also  the  titles  of  the  Psalms  are  written 
in  red.  The  first  letter  of  each  paragraph  is  enlarged 
and  stands  in  the  margin.  Some  of  the  Greek  letters 
have  Egyptian  forms;  quotations  are  marked  with  an 
arrow-head  in  the  margin.  There  are  numerous  cor- 
rections generally  written  over  erasures,  but  single 
letters  are  struck  out  with  the  pen  or  marked  for  omis- 
sion "with  a  fine  oblique  stroke  resembling  an  acute 
accent."  No  accents  or  breathings  occurred  in  the  orig- 
inal text,  tho  some  were  added  later. ^ 

This  manuscript  is  an  uncial  not  later  than  the 
"middle  or  end  of  the  fifth  century"  (Nestle).  It 
originally  contained  the  whole  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  including  the  Psalms  of  Solomon  in  the 
former  and  i  and  2  Clement  in  the  latter;  but  it  has 
suffered  mutilation  in  a  few  places,  the  beginning  of 
Matthew's  gospel  being  absent  (chaps.  1-24) ;  and  also 
John  6:  50,  8:  52;  2  Cor.  4:  13,  12:  7.  We  shall  not 
describe  it  further  as  the  new  discoveries  do  not  re- 
quire it,  since  the  codex  came  to  Europe  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  represents  essentially  the  text 
of  the  King  James  version. 

^  Facsimile  of  the  Codex  Alexandrinus,  4  vols.,  pub.  by  British  Museum 
1881,  with  critical  introduction  by  E.  Maude  Thompson  Most  of  the 
above  statements  were  taken  from  this  work. 


138     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Codex  Bezae  (Cantabrigiensis). 

This  manuscript  is  not  later  than  the  sixth  century 
and  perhaps  considerably  earlier.  It  is  a  Greek-Latin 
manuscript  of  the  New  Testament  containing  409 
leaves,  and  represents  the  oldest  and  best  form  of  the 
Western  text.  It  was  presented  to  the  University  of 
Cambridge  by  Calvin's  friend,  Theodore  Beza,  in 
1 58 1,  having  been  obtained  by  him  after  the  sack  nf 
Lyons  in  1562.  Its  early  history  is  doubtful.  It  never 
contained  the  Old  Testament,  but  contains  the  Four 
Gospels  with  a  few  lacunae,  the  Acts,  and  the  conclud- 
ing verses  (in  Latin)  of  3  John.  At  least  nine  later 
hands  worked  upon  it.  It  is  unique  among  the  Biblical 
manuscripts.  It  alone  contains  the  incident  of  the  man 
working  in  the  field  on  the  Sabbath  day  (following 
Luke  6:4),  to  whom  Jesus  said:  "Oh  man,  if  thou 
knowest  what  thou  doest,  blessed  are  thou;  but  if  thou 
knowest  not,  thou  art  cursed  and  a  transgressor  of 
the  law."  It  alone  renders  Luke  11:2,  "When  you  pray 
use  not  vain  repetitions  as  the  'others'  (XoiJioi)  do";  and 
it  also  stands  alone  in  a  number  of  other  readings  and 
in  certain  omissions  (e.g.,  Luke  22:  20;  24:  12,  36,  40, 
51).  The  text  of  this  manuscript  differs  widely  from 
any  other  Greek  manuscript,  but  finds  affinities  with 
the  Old  Syriac  and  the  Old  Latin  versions.  The  varia- 
tions in  the  text  of  the  Acts  are  so  frequent  that  these 
have  given  rise  to  the  theory  that  this  represents  a 
different  edition  of  the  book  issued  by  St.  Luke  himself 
(F.  Blass,  Nestle,  Salmon);  but  such  a  theory  would 
not  account  for  similar  variants  of  the  Western  text 
in  other  Bible  books.^  Sir  F.  G.  Kenyon  believes  that 
this  and  other  Western  texts  represent  private  rather 
*  3ee  Kenyon,  Handbook,  pp.  79,  301. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     139 

than  church  copies  of  the  Bible,  and  were,  therefore, 
written  less  scrupulously.  It  was  written  in  two  lan- 
guages, because  in  the  Byzantine  where  it,  like  other 
Greek-Latin  texts,  probably  originated,  the  inhabitants 
spoke  Latin,  while  the  invaders  spoke  Greek.  A  bi- 
lingual Bible  was,  therefore,  a  necessity  for  church 
services/  Hoskier  and  others  rank  this  text  above 
either  the  Sinaiticus  or  the  Vatican  Codex/* 

Such  were  all  the  oldest  New  Testament  MSS.  of 
the  first  class  known  in  the  world  up  to  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Among  particularly  valuable  New 
Testament  manuscripts  of  the  second  class  known  pre- 
viously to  1896  might  be  mentioned  the  Codex  Claro- 
montaniis  for  the  Pauline  epistles;  the  Codex  Laudi- 
amis  for  Acts;  the  Codex  Dublinensis  for  Matthew's 
gospel;  the  Codex  Nitriensis  for  Luke's  gospel,  all  of 
which  were  of  the  sixth  century.  Perhaps  particularly 
interesting  to  most  readers  would  be  the  four  silver 
lettered  purple  manuscripts  of  the  Four  Gospels,  all 
made  after  the  pattern  of  Codex  Nitriensis,  the  first 
of  which  was  found  in  1879  and  the  last  in  1896.  In 
the  latter  year  182  leaves  of  these  wonderfully  beautiful 
MSS.  came  to  light. 

(2)    NEWLY   DISCOVERED    FRAGMENTS    OF   ANCIENT    NEW 

TESTAMENTS    (4TH-5TH    CENTURIES)    WRITTEN 

UPON  SKINS  AND  CATALOGUED  BY  GREGORY 

In  1909  Dr.  Caspar  Rene  Gregory,  a  celebrated 
scholar  born  in  America,  but  since  1889  a  professor  in 
the  University  of  Leipzig,   catalogued  all  the  known 

'  See   the   illuminating   statement  by   Alex.    Souter   in  Journal   Theol. 
Studies,  6 :  240#. 

'*  Codex  B.  and  its  Allies,  H.  C.  Hoskier,  1914. 


140    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament  in  all  lands.  Among 
these,  if  I  count  correctly,  he  listed  between  thirty-five 
and  forty  fragments  of  parchment  and  vellum  New 
Testaments  dating  from  the  fourth  to  the  sixth  century, 
inclusive;  at  least  sixteen  or  seventeen  of  these  repre- 
senting discoveries  which  had  been  made  within  less 
than  twenty  years  of  the  publication  of  his  great  work.^ 
We  will  now  give  the  most  important  of  these  newly 
discovered  texts,  listed  by  Gregory. 

Matthew  i :  21 ;  2 :  2  (5th  or  6th  Century) — This  text,  which 
was  first  published  by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  {0 xyrhynchus 
Papyri,  III,  No.  401),  contains  the  account  of  the  virgin 
birth  of  Jesus  and  the  visit  of  the  Magi.  It  is  a  leaf  from  a 
vellum  book,  written  in  very  small  characters.  A  letter  is 
occasionally  inserted  by  mistake  and  in  one  case  an  omitted 
letter  is  placed  above  the  line  (2:2) ;  but  on  the  whole  it  is 
well  written  and  agrees  with  the  regular  text. 

Matthew  6:5,  6,  8,  9,  13-15  (4th  Century) — This  was  first 
published  in  1901  and  gives  us  the  beginning  and  end  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer. 

Matthew  7:7,  22;  11:5,  12,  13;  7:47,  54;  14:4,  13,  20; 
15:11,  16,  18 ;  17 :  2,  24 ;  18 : 4,  9 ;  19 :  3,  10,  17,  25  ;  20 : 9 ; 
21:5,  12;  22:7,  15,  24,  32;  23:35;  24:3,  12,  16,  30  (6th 
Century) — This  is  a  beautiful  purple,  gold-letter  manuscript 
of  forty-three  leaves,  which  was  found  in  1899  at  Sinob. 
The  original  text  contained  pictures  of  Herodias  asking  for 
the  head  of  John  the  Baptist,  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand, 
and  also  of  the  four  thousand,  the  healing  of  the  blind  man 
at  Jericho,  and  the  cursing  of  the  fig  tree.  The  text,  without 
the  pictures,  is  given  by  Gregory  with  critical  notes. 

Matthew  18:  18,  19,  22,  23,  26,  28,  29  (4th  or  5th  Century) — 
This  text  has  recently  been  published  by  Wessely.  ^  It  is  a 
much  broken  parchment  leaf  of  thirty-six  lines,  beautifully 
written  in  narrow  columns.  There  is  one  misspelled  word  to 
which  an  observant  reader  has  called  attention  by  writing 

'  Textkritik  des  Neuen  Testaments,  Dritter  Band,  1909. 
'Griechisclie  tmd  koptische  Texte,  Inhalt,  III,  89,  text  24. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     141 

"sic"  in  the  margin.  The  passage  contains  a  portion  of  the 
parable  of  the  man  who  owed  10,000  talents;  and  some  nota- 
ble expressions  stand  out  in  the  text,  "Whatsoever  things  ye 
shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven" ;  "if  two  of  you 
shall  agree  ...  it  shall  be  done  for  them,"  etc. 

Mark  6:28,  29;  Luke  2:  i,  8  (4th  or  5th  Century) — This 
text  was  brought  to  light  in  1899.  It  tells  of  the  burial  of 
John  the  Baptist  and  the  birth  of  Jesus. 

Mark  6:  30b — 41  (6th  Century) — This  is  a  vellum  fragment 
recorded  by  Deissmann  in  Die  Septiiaginta-Papyri  und  an- 
dere  altchristliche  Fragmente  (Heidelberg,  1905).  The 
eleven  verses  preserved  are  marked  by  thirty  variations  from 
the  Textus  receptus,  in  many  of  which  the  fragment  agrees 
with  the  Westcott  and  Hort  text.^* 

Mark  15 :  29-33-38  (4th  Century) — Gregory  gives  this  entire 
text  with  critical  notes  (op.  cit.,  pp.  73-74),  and  it  has  been 
re-edited  by  Wessely  in  a  very  beautiful  manner  {op.  cit., 
Ill,  No.  186,  text  21).  It  is  a  parchment  leaf 
excellently  preserved  and  written  on  both  sides.  It  con- 
tains only  five  verses  to  a  page,  so  that  it  must  have  repre- 
sented a  very  small  "Diamond  Edition"  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  word  "cross"  is  so  abbreviated  as  to  make  the 
cross  literally  appear  in  the  word  itself,  and  this  has  been 
done  also  in  writing  the  word  "crucifixion."  The  most 
curious  and  interesting  reading  is  the  expression  put  upon 
the  lips  of  the  priests  who  mocked  Jesus :  "He  saved  others ; 
he  can  save  himself."  Was  the  "not"  omitted  from  the  last 
phrase  through  mistake  or  because  of  the  reverence  of  the 
scribe  ? 

Mark  10:50,  51;  ii:ii,  12  (5th  or  6th  Century) — A  leaf 
from  a  vellum  book  now  preserved  in  the  Chicago  University. 
It  agrees  with  the  ordinary  Greek  text  and  has  no  peculiarity 
deserving  of  attention.  It  tells  of  the  blind  man  who,  cast- 
ing away  his  garment,  came  to  Jesus  and  was  healed ;  and 
of  our  Lord's  visit  to  Bethany. 

Luke  12:  15;  13:32;  John  8:33,  42  (5th  Century) — This 
text  is  of  little  importance  excepting  as  it  represents  a  volume 

®'I  am  indebted  to  Prof.  Wallace  N.  Stearns,  Fargo  College,  Fargo, 
N.  Dak.,  for  this  reference. 


142     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

in  which  the  four  gospels  were  bound  together  with  Coptic 
and  Sahidic  translations.  It  closes  with  the  verse  in  which 
Jesus  declares,  "I  proceeded  and  came  from  God,  neither 
have  I  come  of  myself,  but  he  sent  me." 

John  2:  11-22  (4th  Century) — First  published  in  Oxyrhyn- 
chus  Papyri,  VI,  No.  847.  It  is  a  vellum  leaf  practically 
entire,  containing  a  dozen  verses  in  a  text  more  closely  re- 
sembling that  of  the  Vatican  than  of  the  Sinaiticus.  It  men- 
tions the  "manifestation  of  his  glory"  at  Cana  of  Galilee,  and 
then  describes  the  equally  glorious  act  of  the  Messiah  in 
driving  out  the  money-changers  from  the  worshiping  place 
of  the  Gentiles  in  the  temple. 

Acts  2:11,  12,  13,  14,  16,  17,  20  (5th  or  6th  Century) — This 
important  text,  first  published  in  1900  (Amherst  Papyri), 
is  given  in  full  by  Gregory  with  critical  notes.  It  deals  with 
the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

Acts  3:24 — 4:13,  17-20  (4th  Century) — This  text  pre- 
served in  Berlin,  gives  the  end  of  Peter's  speech  at  Pente- 
cost and  describes  the  consternation  of  the  rulers  at  the 
"boldness"  of  these  "unlearned  and  ignorant"  men. 

Acts  13:28-31  (5th  Century) — First  appeared  in  1894  in 
Studia  Sinaitica.  It  gives  a  few  words  from  Paul's  speech 
at  Antioch,  where  he  refers  to  the  death  and  burial  of  Jesus, 
tho  Pilate  had  "found  no  cause  of  death  in  him." 

Acts  24 :  22-26,  27 ;  i  Peter  2 :  22 — 3  :  7  (6th  Century) — This 
text  was  first  published  by  Charles  Taylor  in  his  Genizeh 
Palimpsests,  in  1900.  It  represents  fragments  taken  from  a 
volume  which  contained,  probably,  the  entire  New  Testa- 
ment. The  first  quotation  represents  a  portion  of  Paul's 
speech  before  Felix  ;  the  second  begins  with  Peter's  statement 
concerning  Christ,  "who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found 
in  his  mouth,"  and  who  "his  own  self  bore  our  sins  in  his 
body  on  the  tree." 

Acts  28:  30 — 31 :  I  a  (late  5th  Century) — ^A  vellum  fragment 
listed  by  Deissmann  in  Die  Septuaginta  Papyri.  It  shows  a 
few  minor  unimportant  variants.^^ 

•"  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Stearns  for  this  reference. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     143 

Revelation  16:  17-20  (5th  Century) — Published  in  Oxyrhyn- 
chus  Papyri,  VI,  No.  848.  It  is  a  leaf  from  a  vellum  book 
of  remarkably  small  size,  the  written  surface  being  only  four 
inches  in  height.  The  text  agrees  most  closely  with  the 
Codex  Alexandrinus.  It  contains  a  description  of  the  pour- 
ing forth  of  the  seventh  bowl  of  God's  wrath  upon  the  earth. 

Dr.  Gregory  catalogued  and  briefly  criticized  the 
newly  found  Washington  Codex,  to  be  mentioned  later, 
and  gave  a  list  of  a  dozen  papyri  dating  from  the  third 
to  the  sixth  century,  which  list  is  the  basis  of  later 
catalogs.  The  study  of  the  New  Testament  has  been 
splendidly  advanced  by  this  notable  work.^*^ 

(3)    RECENTLY    DISCOVERED    PORTIONS    OF    NEW    TESTA- 
MENTS  (3RD-4TH  centuries)   written 

UPON  PAPYRUS  AND  CATALOGUED  BY 
GREGORY   AND    KENYON 

The  startling  discovery  in  1897  of  a  leaf  from  a 
papyrus  New  Testament  over  sixteen  hundred  years 
old  (see  above)  was  followed  very  rapidly  by  others, 
until  Sir  F.  G.  Kenyon,  of  the  British  Museum,  in  his 
Hand-book  to  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment (1912),  and  Dr.  George  Milligan,  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Glasgow,  in  his  New  Testament  Documents 
(1913),  could  add  eight  more  to  the  list  given  by 
Gregory  (1909),  thus  cataloging  and  describing  some 
fifteen  leaves  from  twelve  or  thirteen  different  papyrus 
Bibles  or  lectionaries  which  were  being  used  by  the 
early  Christians  from  the  third  to  the  sixth  century, 
and  seven  or  eight  fragments  from  rolls  of  Scripture 

*"  Gregory's  numbers  for  the  texts  referred  to  above  are:  071,  0152, 
023,  Tt,  Evl.  1043.  0149,  Tu,  069,  Twoi,  0162,  076,  0165,  077,  093, 
0163.  There  are  several  others  among  Gregory's  texts  which  probably  were 
discovered  as  early  as  those  recorded  above;  but  the  writer  has  not  been 
able  to  find  proof  of  this. 


144     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

equally  early.  We  give  below  this  remarkable  list, 
merely  classifying  the  texts  differently,  and  adding 
comments  of  our  own. 

ANCIENT    PAPYRUS    NEW    TESTAMENTS    CATALOGUED    BY 
SIR   F.   G.    KENYON  " 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Papyrus  Books  Containing  Portions  of 
St.  Matthew's  Gospel. 
Matt.  I  :  1-9,  12,  14-20  (3d  Century) — This  is  the  leaf  from  a 
papyrus  book  referred  to  above.  It  is  written  in  capital  letters 
(uncials).  When  discovered  it  was  the  "oldest  known  manu- 
script of  any  part  of  the  New  Testament."  In  a  very  clear 
way  it  supports  the  Eastern  text  represented  by  Westcott  and 
Hort's  Greek  Testament.  It  gives  the  genealogy  and  birth  of 
Jesus. 

Matt.  10:32-373,  39-42;  11:  1-5  (5th  Century) — This  gives 
us  probably  the  oldest  authority  for  reading  wtov  (10:32). 
It  contains  the  great  discourse  of  Jesus  in  which  he  says,  "He 
that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of 
me,"  and  "He  that  doth  not  take  his  cross  and  follow  after 
me  is  not  worthy  of  me." 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Papyrus  Boohs  Containing  Portions  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel. 

Luke  1 :  74-80;  5:3-8;  5  :  30 — 6 :  4  (4th  Century) — Here  in 
the  midst  of  the  broken  text  one  can  still  see  standing  out  in 
characters  written  over  1,500  years  ago  the  eternal  message 
"I  am  not  come  to  call  the  righteous  but  sinners  to  repent- 
ance." 

Luke  7:36-44;  10:38-42  (6th  Century) — This  is  written  in 

a  cursive  hand  and  tells  of  the  Mary  who  hath  "chosen  the 

good  part,"  and  of  the  woman  that  was  a  sinner  who  broke 

the  box  of  ointment  over  our  Lord  and  ceased  not  to  kiss  his 
feet.i2 

"  Based  on  Gregory's  list  given  Die  griechischen  Handschriften  des 
Neuen  Test.  (1908),  pp.  45-47,  and  Textkritik  des  Neuen  Test.  (1900- 
1909),  III.,  pp.  1084-1092. 

'"  Both  this  and  the  text  above  are  catalogued  by  Gregory  as  Liturgies 
(Nos.  943,  348),  rather  than  leaves  of  New  Testaments. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     145 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Papyrus  Books  Containing  Portions  of 
St.  John's  Gospel. 

John  1 :  23-31,  33-41 ;  20:  ii-i/,  19-25  (3d  or  4th  Century)  — 
This  is  a  long  and  very  important  text  which  agrees  generally 
with  the  Codex  Sinaiticus  and  in  several  instances  supports  it 
with  readings  not  found  elsewhere.  This  leaf  from  one  of 
the  most  ancient  fragments  of  the  New  Testament  in  exist- 
ence contains  the  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  to  Jesus,  and 
here  in  plain  Greek,  as  it  was  written  over  1,500  years  ago,  we 
can  read  the  world-shaking  announcement  concerning  the 
Lamb  of  God  "that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,"  and 
also  the  narrative  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus. 

John  12:  12-15  (5th  or  6th  Century) — This  text  the  writer 
has  not  seen  and  does  not  know  whether  it  is  a  roll  or  a  leaf. 
At  any  rate  it  contains  the  passage  which  reads :  "Hosannah ! 
the  king  cometh." 

John  3:  14-18,  31,  32  (6th  Century) — These  texts  are  written 
on  fragments  of  two  leaves  of  a  papyrus  book  which  com- 
menced with  St.  John's  gospel.  Tho  left  undated  by  Sir 
F.  G.  Kenyon,  it  is  probably  to  be  dated  to  the  sixth  century 
(see  Piihlicasioni  delta  societa  Italiana — Pap.  greci.  V.  i, 
No.  3).  In  verse  18  "in  the  name"  (of  the  only  begotten 
Son  of  God)  is  twice  repeated  probably  by  a  copyist's  error, 
and  the  last  half  of  verse  31  is  wanting.  But  these  slight 
scribal  errors  are  forgotten  when  one  sees  the  statement, 
"for  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son,"  etc. 

Fragment  of  an  Ancient  Papyrus  Book  Containing  a  Portion  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

Acts  4:31-37;  5:2-9;  6:1-6,  8-15  (4th  Century) — This  is 
one  of  the  most  important  and  one  of  the  best  preserved  of  all 
the  texts  given  by  Drs.  Milligan  and  Kenyon,  showing  no 
break  excepting  an  occasional  word  at  the  end  of  a  line. 
It  was  found  in  1903  and  represents  two  good  leaves  from 
one  of  the  most  ancient  New  Testaments  in  existence.  It 
begins  with  the  statement  that  the  disciples  were  "all  filled 
with  the  Holy  Spirit  .  .  .  and  with  great  power  gave  the 
apostles  their  witness  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus," 
continues  by  giving  the  story  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  and 


146    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  appointing  of  the  seven  deacons,  and  ends  with  the  thrill- 
ing account  of  the  death  of  Stephen. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Papyrus  Books  Containing  Portions  of  the 
General  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 

Rom.  1 :  1-7  (Early  4th  Century) — Altho  included  in 
Kenyon's  list,  this  appears  in  such  rude  penmanship  that 
Grenfell  and  Hunt  think  it  to  have  been  a  school-boy's  exer- 
cise, but  Deissmann  thinks  it  was  a  gospel  amulet.  In  any 
case,  out  of  that  far-distant  century  we  get  in  the  rough 
chirography  of  this  peasant  the  declaration  that  Christ  Jesus 
"was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  (YY0YENA- 
YNAMEI)by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead." 

Rom.  12:3-8  (Late  6th  or  7th  Century) — This  passage  was 
probably  copied  out  in  this  form  to  be  read  in  the  church. 
It  contains  the  famous  passage  which  describes  Christians  as 
members  of  Christ's  body." 

I  Cor.  7:  18-8:4;  Phil.  3:9-17;  4:2-8  (Second  half  of  4th 
Century) — Two  leaves  from  a  papyrus  book  containing  the 
Pauline  argument  that  love  is  greater  than  knowledge,  for 
"knowledge  puffeth  up,  but  love  buildeth  up" ;  also  his 
teaching  concerning  the  "power  of  his  resurrection  and  the 
fellowship  of  his  sufferings,"  and  the  heroic  expression  of 
the  apostle's  determination  to  press  on  "unto  the  prize." 
A  comma  is  sometimes  used  to  separate  the  syllables.  To  in- 
dicate long  pauses  a  blank,  coronis,  or  other  mark  to  catch  the 
eye  is  used. 

I  Cor.  1 :  17-20;  6:  13-18;  7:  3,  4,  10-14  (5th  Century) — Five 
fragments  written  in  large  letters  declaring:  "Christ  sent  me 
not  to  baptize  but  to  preach  the  gospel  .  .  .  for  the  word  of 
the  cross  .  .  .  unto  us  who  are  saved  is  the  power  of  God," 
etc. 

I  Cor.  1:25-27;  2:6-8;  3:8-10,  20  (5th  Century) — Seven 
small  fragments  very  much  mutilated  but  containing  those 
great  passages  which  speak  of  "God's  wisdom  in  a  mystery," 
"we  are  God's  fellow  workers,"  etc. 

"  This  is,  however,  probably  a  fragment  of  a  lectionary  rather  than  of  a 
New  Testament,  as  the  marks  usually  used  to  catch  the  eye  in  public  read- 
ing are  still  plainly  visible. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     147 

Fragment  of  an  Ancient  Papyrus  Book  Containing  a  Portion  of  a 
Pastoral  Epistle. 

Titus  i:  11-15;  2:3-8  (3d  Century) — A  leaf  from  a  papy- 
rus book  in  which  Timothy  is  urged  to  show  himself  an 
example  not  in  "uncorruptness"  (dqp'doQiav),  as  our  A.  V. 
reads  (2:7),  but  in  "freedom  from  envy"  (ctcpOoviav). 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Papyrus  Books  Containing  Portions  of 
Hebrews. 

Heb.  1:1  (3d  or  4th  Century) — Altho  included  in  the  list 
of  Kenyon  and  Milligan,  this  is  not  properly  designated  as  a 
"leaf"  from  an  ancient  New  Testament,  for,  altho  it  is 
among  the  earliest  known  Biblical  fragments,  it  is  really 
written  on  the  margin  of  a  letter :  "God  having  of  old  time 
spoken  unto  our  fathers,"  etc. 

Heb.  2  :  14-5  :  5  ;  10 :  8-1 1 :  13 ;  11:  28-12 :  17  (Early  4th  Cen- 
tury)— This  is  a  very  large  manuscript  containing  about  one- 
third  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  It  was  written  on  the 
back  of  a  papyrus  containing  the  new  epitome  of  Livy  {Oxy- 
rhynchus  Papyri,  4:  668).  Eleven  broad  columns  of  the  text 
remain,  filling  eight  quarto  pages  when  printed.  The  numbers 
on  the  ancient  leaves  prove  that  other  books  of  the  New 
Testament  preceded  the  book  of  Hebrews  in  this  very  ancient 
collection.  The  text  is  good,  but  the  spelling  is  poor.  The 
form  of  punctuation  used  is  that  of  a  double  point.  It  con- 
tains the  entire  argument  concerning  the  "great  salvation" 
which  had  been  confirmed  by  "signs  and  wonders  .  .  .  and 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  It  is  a  very  valuable  contribution 
to  text  criticism. 

Heb.  9:  12-19  (4th  Century) — The  same  system  of  punctua- 
tion mentioned  above  is  found  here.  In  the  text  one  reads 
about  the  "blood  of  Christ"  and  the  "eternal  spirit." 

Fragment  of  an  Ancient  Papyrus  Book  Containing  a  Portion  of 
the  Epistle  of  St.  James. 

James  2:19-3:9  (Late  3d  Century) — This  leaf  containing 
a  text  in  general  agreement  with  that  of  the  Vatican  Codex 
gives  the  argument  that  if  a  man  has  faith  he  must  have 
works  also ;  a  man's  tongue  must  be  pure  if  his  heart  is  pure. 


148     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Fragment  of  an  Ancient  Papyrus  Book  Containing  a  Portion  of 
I  John. 

I  John  4:  11-12,  14-17  (4th  or  5th  Century) — This  text  has 
been  carelessly  copied,  but  one  can  still  read:  "Behold  if  God 
so  loved,  we  also  should  love  .  .  .  the  Father  hath  sent  the 
Son  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  w^orld.  Whosoever  shall  confess 
that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  (God)  in  him  God  abideth." 

"Fragments  of  an  Ancient  Papyrus  Roll  Containing  Portions  of 
the  Book  of  Revelation. 

Rev.  1 :  4-7  (4th  Century?) — This  text  is  written  on  the  back 
of  a  roll  containing  the  book  of  Exodus,  dating  from  the  third 
or  fourth  century,  in  which  Jesus  Christ  is  spoken  of  as  the 
"faithful  witness  .  .  .  ruler  of  the  kings  of  the  earth  .  .  . 
who  cleansed  us  of  our  sins  by  his  blood."  The  text  is  whole 
with  the  exception  of  two  letters.  The  name  Jesus  Christ  is 
abbreviated  in  rather  an  unusual  way  (ir)  Xe). 


The  discovery  within  twenty  years  of  the  above 
twenty  fragments  from  some  twenty  different  ancient 
New  Testaments  or  lectionaries  was  a  wonderful  sur- 
prize, and  proved  the  integrity  of  the  ancient  texts  in 
a  manner  entirely  satisfactory  to  believers.  Sir  F.  G. 
Kenyon  omitted,  however,  from  his  survey  the  newly 
discovered  texts  written  on  parchment  and  vellum,  and 
even  since  the  above  list  of  Biblical  papyri  was  tabu- 
lated by  Kenyon  and  Milligan  (191 2- 13),  a  few  other 
equally  surprizing  discoveries  have  come  to  light;  so 
that  the  writer  is  now  able  to  give  an  additional  list 
of  twenty-eight  ancient  New  Testaments  (seventeen  on 
skin  and  eleven  on  papyrus)  to  supplement  the  notable 
catalogs  given  above. ^^* 

"'  Several  of  the  Papyrus  fragments  listed  by  Gregory  (such  as  P'  and 
P'®),  are  omitted  from  the  above  list  because  they  are  undated  or  are 
certainly  not  pieces  of  New  Testaments. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     149 

(4)  other  more  recently  discovered  yvncient  new 
testaments  on  papyri,  parchment  or  vel- 
lum dating  from  the  third  to  the  sixth 
centuries/* 

Fragments  of  Ancient  New  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
St.  Matt/iezv's  Gospel. 
Matt.  6:5,  6,  8,  9,  13-15,  17  (5th  or  6th  Century) — A  vellum 
leaf  published  in  Oxyrhynchiis  Papyri  (IX:  1 169).  It  con- 
tains the  remarks  of  our  Lord  concerning  prayer:  "Thou, 
when  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thine  inner  chamber,  and  having 
shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  who  is  in  secret;  and  thy 
Father  who  seeth  in  secret  shall  recompense  thee,"  etc.  This 
was  evidently  a  fine  Bible,  originally  measuring  over  six 
inches  high  by  five  inches  wide.  The  text  is  divided  into 
paragraphs  and  a  new  line  with  an  enlarged  initial  letter  com- 
mences each  paragraph. 

P. — Matt.  12 :  24-26,  32-33.  (5th  Century).  This  papyrus  leaf 
{Oxyrhynchus Papyri;  X:  No.  1227),  written  in  large  uncials 
by  a  good  penman,  follows  the  Codex  Bezae  in  one  variant : 
"This  (fellow)  does  not  cast  out  demons  but  by  Beelzeboul 
prince  of  the  demons.  But  knowing  their  thoughts  he  said 
to  them  .  _^.  whosoever  shall  speak  a  word  against  the  Son 
of  Man  (vv  tod  avoi)),  it  shall  be  forgiven  him;  but  whoso- 
ever speaketh  against  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  shall  not,"  etc. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  New  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel. 
Luke  1 :  74 — 2  :  7  f 6th  Century) — Text  published  by  Wessely 
(op.  cit.,  Inhalts  II,  1911,  No.  55  B),  This  is  a  parchment 
leaf  on  the  opposite  side  of  which  is  Luke  (1:59-72)  in 
Coptic.  The  importance  of  this  bi-lingual  text  and  those 
which  are  to  follow  is  great.  It  proves  that  in  those  early 
centuries  the  Church  believed  in  giving  the  gospel  to  the 
people  in  their  own  language.  While  on  one  page  the  Greek 
text  was  given,  on  the  opposite  page  a  translation  of  the  Greek 
into  Coptic  was  given  also.  The  particular  Greek  text  given 
here  consists  of  72  lines,  not  a  word  being  lost.    One  syllable 

"  Examined  and  catalogued  by  the  author.    In  order  to  facilitate  quick 
reference  the  texts  on  papyri  are  marked  P. 


150     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

in  verse  75  is  repeated  by  mistake  and  there  are  two  or  three 
sHght  errors  in  spelling;  otherwise  this  ancient  text  agrees 
letter  by  letter  with  our  modern  critical  editions.  The  pas- 
sage given  contains  the  hymn  of  Zacharias  and  tells  of  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  the  "dayspring  from  on  high." 

Luke  9:59-62;  10:  1-14  (4th  or  5th  Century) — Greek  text 
given  by  Wessely  in  work  cited,  No.  185,  text  20.  This  is  a 
parchment  leaf  containing  over  fifty  lines  very  beautifully 
written  on  both  sides  in  remarkably  wide  columns.  It  is  evi- 
dently one  of  the  few  elegant  church  Bibles  that  have  come 
from  this  very  ancient  time.  There  are  a  very  few  trans- 
positions of  words,  and  in  verse  62  a  word  is  left  out;  other- 
wise the  text  is  that  of  Westcott  &  Hort  almost  letter  for 
letter.  This  leaf  contains  the  wonderful  message  of  Jesus 
concerning  the  harvest  being  great  but  the  laborers  few ;  he 
sends  out  his  disciples  "as  lambs  in  the  midst  of  wolves." 

Luke  16:4-12  (6th  Century) — Text  published  by  Wessely 
(ibid,  No.  56  C).  This  is  a  parchment  leaf  containing  63 
narrow  lines  of  Greek  text  in  rather  a  bad  state  of  preserva- 
tion. The  chief  variants  are  found  in  verse  8,  where  "sons 
of  the  light"  is  changed  to  "son  of  the  light" ;  and  in  verse  11, 
where  a  negative  appears  before  the  word  "faithful"  and  the 
text  reads,  "If  therefore  ye  have  not  been  found  unfaithful 
in  the  unrighteous  mammon,  who  will  commit  to  your  trust 
the  true  (riches)  ?"  The  ancient  New  Testament  which  con- 
tained this  text  contained  also  a  Coptic  translation  in  the  same 
volume,  the  text  on  the  back  of  this  leaf  being  Luke  15  :  27 — 
16:3. 

Luke  19:  17,  22-24  (5th  or  6th  Century) — Given  by  Wessely, 
op.  cit.  No.  188,  text  23.  This  is  a  well- written  parchment 
leaf,  containing  almost  all  the  parable  of  the  pounds.  The 
only  unusual  change  in  the  text  is  a  note  of  insolence,  which 
appears  in  verse  20,  where,  instead  of  saying  "Lord,  behold 
here  is  thy  pound,"  by  a  very  slight  verbal  change  the  slothful 
servant  is  made  to  say :  "Lord,  here  is  the  thing  I  have  kept 
laid  up  in  a  napkin."  This  might  be  a  liturgical  text  so  far  as 
the  verses  are  concerned  (Gregory,  Textkritik  des  Neuen 
Testaments,  i :  357). 

Luke  21:30-22:2  (6th  Century) — Published  by  Wessely 
{ibid.  No.  57  B).    This  is  a  parchment  leaf,  the  Greek  half 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     151 

of  which  contains  74  lines  very  well  preserved ;  on  the  other 
side  in  Coptic  is  written  Luke  21 :  21-30.  Very  few  mistakes 
are  to  be  noted  in  this  text,  when  the  itacisms  common  in  all 
ancient  manuscripts  and  a  few  other  misspellings  due  to  mis- 
pronunciation are  not  counted.  In  verse  36  a  syllable  is 
omitted,  and  in  verse  34,  after  *r]fi8Qa  the  word  SieX^coaeiv  is 
inserted.  I  cannot  conjecture  why  this  insertion  was  made, 
and  my  colleague,  Dr.  W.  A.  Elliott,  who  has  given  me  much 
valuable  help  in  this  section  of  my  work,  is  equally  at  loss. 

Luke  22:44-56,  61-63  (4th  Century) — Published  in  Publica- 
zioni  della  Societa  Italiana;  Papyri  greet  e  latini  (II.,  124).  I 
take  this  to  be  the  same  text  as  was  published  in  this  same 
work  in  shorter  form  a  year  or  two  previously,  which  Schu- 
bart  dates  in  first  half  of  fourth  century  (I,  No.  2).  This 
rather  rare  manuscript  was  found  at  Eshmiinen,  about  175 
miles  south  of  Cairo.  Either  the  scribe  had  before  him  an 
unusual  text,  or  he  is  exceedingly  careless  or  he  is  more  par- 
ticular about  giving  the  exact  thought  than  the  exact  language 
of  his  copy.  In  verse  47,  instead  of  writing  (Aeyojievog)  "he 
that  was  called"  Judas,  he  uses  the  more  common  form  for 
the  same  thought  (xcdoujievog),  and  adds  to  Judas  his  ordi- 
nary title  "Iscariot,"  which  the  New  Testament  manuscripts 
usually  omit.  In  verse  49,  instead  of  saying  that  those  about 
Jesus  saw  "what  would  follow,"  he  writes  "what  had  fol- 
lowed"; so  in  verse  51,  "answered"  is  omitted;  and  in  verse 
55,  instead,  of  saying  when  they  had  kindled  a  fire  they  "sat 
down  together"  (aw),  he  says  they  sat  "around"  it  (toqi). 
His  spelling  is  also  sometimes  rather  original.  The  prob- 
ability is  that  the  copyist  trusted  his  memory  of  the  text  too 
fully  and,  therefore,  his  text  is  a  little  less  verbally  accurate 
than  others ;  but  this  speaks  well  for  his  previous  Bible  train- 
ing. He  knew  the  facts  perfectly ;  but  he  was  not  as  careful 
as  some  to  write  the  Greek  letters  correctly.  It  looks  as  if  this 
scribe  did  not  think  of  the  Bible  text  as  a  magical  thing.  It 
was  the  spirit  and  meaning  that  gave  it  life. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Nezv  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
St.  John's  Gospel. 

John  7 :3-i2  (6th  Century) — This  is  an  uncial  fragment  (pub- 
lished by  Wessely,  op.  cit.  XI,  p.  12)  written  on  vellum.  The 
text  shows  abbreviations,  and  the  ten  verses  here  preserved 


152     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

contain  fourteen  slight  variants  from  the  Textus  Receptus, 
thus  lacking  marked  agreement  with  the  Westcoitt  and 
Hort  text.^^ 

P.— John  lo:  I,  2,  4,  7,  9,  lo;  II :  1-8  ( ?),  45-52  (5th  Cen- 
tury)— In  an  Akhmim  papyrus  now  at  Strassburg  Univer- 
sity, published  by  Roesch,  Bruckstncke  des  ersten  Clemens- 
brief  es  (Strassburg,  1910).  This  is  a  bi-lingual  codex  con- 
taining also,  I  Clement  (i — 26:2).  It  was  probably  a 
church  reading  book.  The  portions  given  in  Coptic  (Akhmi- 
mic)  are  St.  John  (10:  i — 12:  20;  13:  i,  2,  11,  12) ;  St.  James 
(i :  13;  5  :  20).  This  fragment  is  badly  mutilated  only  seven 
letters  of  one  verse  remaining  (10:  4),  and  little  more  in  one 
or  two  other  verses,  so  that  it  is  not  very  valuable  for  critical 
purposes ;  yet  a  few  changes  from  the  ordinary  text  may  be 
noted,  e.g.,  interchanges  of  letters,  cp  (ph)  for  ■&  (th),  and  t 
for  g,  in  many  places ;  o  to  a,  and  e  to  e.  It  is  interesting  \o 
ask  whether  these  changes  are  not  in  several  instances  due  to 
mispronunciation  (cf.  •&  for  cp  11:52),  rather  than  to  mis- 
takes of  the  eye.  It  seems  a  mere  careless  slip  of  verbal 
memory  when,  instead  of  the  phrase  "of  strangers  they  know 
not  the  voice"  (10:  5),  this  scribe  writes  "they  know  not  the 
voice  of  strangers."  In  the  midst  of  the  broken  lines  some 
good  words  can  be  made  out :  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  he  that 
entereth  in  through  .  .  .  sheepfold  .  .  .  but  climbeth  up  .  .  . 
the  same  is  a  thief  .  .  .  but  a  stranger  [they  will  not  follow]" 
(John  10:  i-io).  There  is  given  the  beautiful  story  of  "that 
Mary"  who  anointed  the  Lord  with  ointment  and  wiped  his 
feet  with  her  hair  and  it  was  told  him.  .  .  ,  His  sister  sent 
unto  him  saying,  "Lord,  behold  .  .  .  [this  sickness  is  not 
unto]  death,  but  for  the  glory  of  God  that  the  Son  .  .  . 
might  be  glorified.  Now  Jesus  loved  Mary  .  .  .  when  he 
had  heard  therefore  (that  he  was  sick)  he  abode  two  days 
where  he  was."  The  last  section  tells  how  "many  of  the  Jews 
which  came  to  Mary  and  had  seen  the  things  which  he  did,  be- 
lieved on  him.  Men  gathered  the  chief  priests  .  .  .  [and 
said]  if  [we  let  him  alone]  all  men  [will  believe]  and  .  .  . 
Caiaphas  .  .  .  said,  .  .  .  it  is  expedient  that  [one]  man 
[should  die]  for  the  people."  One  of  the  beautiful  personal 
touches  which  render  the  examination  of  these  ancient  docu- 

"  This  reference  obtained  from   Prof.  Wallace  N.  Stearns,  of  Fargo 
College,  N.  Dakota. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     153 

ments  so  fascinating  is  found  at  the  close  of  John  (10:45), 
where  this  ancient  scribe,  or  some  early  reader,  over  1,400 
years  ago,  added  in  the  margin  "Amen"  (P0)  after  the 
statement,  "JNIany  .  .  .  believed  on  him." 

John  15:  25-27;  16:  I,  2,  21-31  (Late  3rd  Century) — This  is 
a  roll  {Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  X,  No.  1228)  containing  a  neu- 
tral text  with  the  usual  abbreviations  and  no  punctuation 
marks.  It  is  a  long  fragment,  and  as  one  glances  at  the  Greek 
text  certain  words  and  phrases  stand  out  clearly,  notwith- 
standing the  mutilations  of  age:  "When  the  Com[forter]  is 
come  .  .  .  from  the  Father  .  .  .  which  proceedeth  from  the 
Father  [he  shall  testify]  of  me  ...  ye  now  therefore  have 
sorrow  .  .  .  your  hearts  shall  rejoice  [and  your  joy]  no  man 
taketh  from  you.  And  in  that  day  ye  shall  ask  me  nothing 
.  .  .  whatsoever  ...  in  my  name  ...  ye  shall  ask  in  my 
name  .  .  .  the  Father  loveth  you  because  ye  .  .  .  have  be- 
lieved that  I  .  .  .  came  forth  from  the  Father  ...  we 
believe,"  etc.  The  early  Christian  who  wrote  and  used  this 
ancient  Bible  lived  about  as  near  to  St.  John  as  we  are  near 
to  the  boyhood  of  George  Washington. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Nezu  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
Acts  2:  1-5  (6th  Century) — Published  by  Wessely  {op.  cit., 
Inhalts  II,  No.  59  C).  This  is  another  of  the  bi-lingual  New 
Testaments  and  contains  Acts  i :  15-20  in  Coptic.  The  only 
diflFerence  between  this  and  Bibles  of  this  type  formerly 
mentioned  is  that  the  two  languages,  instead  of  being  on 
different  pages,  are  in  parallel  collumns  on  the  same  page. 
The  Greek  text  is  the  same  as  the  modern  critical  text  with 
only  a  very  few  trifling  changes  in  spelling  and  the  insertion 
of  a  particle  that  does  not  change  the  meaning  in  verse  3. 
The  passage  contains  the  account  of  the  day  of  Pentecost 
when  the  disciples  spoke  with  tongues  and  were  filled  with 
the  Holy  Spirit  (:tvg). 

P.  Acts  6:  7-10,  11-15  (5th  Century) — Published  in  Publica- 
zioni  della  Socicta  Italiana;  Papiri  greci  c  latini  (II,  No.  125). 
This  large  leaf  is  well  preserved,  needing  restoration  of  text 
in  only  a  very  few  places.  Excepting  in  verse  9,  it  follows  the 
Westcott  and  Hort  text.    It  is  written  in  uncials,  half  on  one 


154     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

side  of  the  leaf  and  half  on  the  other.  It  preserves  for 
us  the  trial  and  death  of  Stephen,  closing  with  the  state- 
ment that  all  that  sat  in  the  council  saw  his  face  as  if  it  were 
the  face  of  an  angel. 

P.  Acts  15 :  22-24,  27-32  (6th  or  7th  Century) — Published  by 
Wessely  {op.  cit.,  Theol.  Inhalts,  III,  No.  190,  Text  25). 
This  is  a  leaf  of  a  papyrus  codex  containing  30  lines  of  elegant 
writing,  only  one  broad  column  to  a  page.  It  was  probably 
a  church  Bible.  This  particular  fragment  tells  of  the  choice 
of  Barsabas  and  Silas  to  go  to  Antioch  with  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas, and  of  the  famous  letter  sent  by  the  Jerusalem  church 
declaring  that  no  burden  of  the  Jewish  law  was  to  be  laid 
upon  Gentile  Christians.  The  only  notable  variant  is  in  verse 
22,  where,  instead  of  Barsabas,  this  scribe  has  written 
Barnabas. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  New  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
the  General  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 
P.  Romans  i :  1-16  (6th  or  7th  Century) — First  published  in 
1915  by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  {0 xyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  XI, 
No.  1354).  This  is  a  papyrus  leaf  from  a  very  large  church 
Bible  which  originally  must  have  been  at  least  eleven  inches 
high  by  seven  inches  broad.  It  is  written  in  red-brown  ink, 
in  an  upright  script,  large  and  very  heavy.  It  contains  the 
ordinary  text  with  a  very  few  exceptions,  as  e.g.,  in  verse  10, 
where  by  a  mistake,  ejtI  is  changed  to  vkzq.  Some  of  the 
abbreviations  are  interesting,  e.g.,  Aag  for  David;  JtQog  for 
jtttTQOi;  ("of  the  Father"),  and  (probably)  a  for  JtQWTOV 
("first").  This  passage  contains  St.  Paul's  famous  declaration, 
"I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God." 

P.  Romans  i :  27-2 :  2  (5th  Century) — Published  in  Pap.  greci 
e  latini,  I,  No.  4.  This  papyrus  gives  without  the  variation 
of  a  letter  the  Westcott  and  Hort  text.  It  begins  with  the 
last  word  of  verse  27  and  ends  with  the  first  word  in  2 :  2.  It 
contains  St.  Paul's  terrific  indictment  against  the  sinfulness 
of  the  Roman  world  of  the  first  century,  an  indictment  which 
the  discoveries  have  amply  vindicated. 

P.  Romans  8:  12-27,  33-39;  9:  1-3,  5-9  (3d  Century) — First 
published  by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  in  191 5  (0 xyrhynchus 
Papyri,  Vol.  XI,  No.  1356).     It  is  a  leaf  from  a  papyrus 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     155 

book,  the  height  of  which  was  about  four  and  one-half  inches 
and  the  width  less  than  two.  It  is  written  in  very  small  char- 
acters, in  an  upright,  informal  hand,  and  is  unpunctuated, 
excepting  where  a  paragraph  is  indicated.  The  leaf  is  badly 
mutilated,  yet  from  what  remains  it  is  clear,  as  the  learned 
editors  point  out,  that  it  is  in  "general  agreement  with  the 
Codex  Vaticanus,  altho  it  occasionally  corrects  its  vulgar 
spelling.  There  are  occasional  interchanges  of  letters  as 
e  and  ea  with  ■&  and  Jt  with  qp.  In  verse  20  a  later  hand  re- 
places the  ordinary  reading,  "The  creature  shall  be  delivered" 
by  the  new  reading,  "is  delivered."  This  is  probably  a  mere 
freak  of  memory  on  the  part  of  the  copyist ;  yet  it  is  an  attrac- 
tive suggestion  that  there  may  be  a  theological  reason  for  the 
present  tense  here,  since  elsewhere  in  the  letter  (6:  18,  22; 
8:  2)  Paul  speaks  of  the  freeing  process  in  the  past  tense.^'* 
While  in  the  great  passage  at  the  end  of  the  eighth  chapter 
half  of  the  lines  are  broken,  we  can  yet  make  out  in  this  oldest 
of  all  Bible  texts  the  precious  words :  "As  many  as  are  led  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons  of  God  .  .  .  children  of 
God  .  .  .,  and  if  children  .  .  .  joint  heirs  ...  I  am  per- 
suaded that  neither  death  .  .  .  nor  powers  .  .  .  nor  height 
nor  depth  .   .  .  shall  be  able  to  separate  us." 

P.  I  Cor.  16 :  4-7,  10 ;  2  Cor.  5 :  18-21 ;  10 :  13,  14 ;  1 1 :  2  (6th 
or  7th  Century) — This  large  text  of  112  lines  was  published 
by  Wessely  in  1912  {op.  cit.,  Inhalts  III,  No.  191,  text  26).  It 
is  part  of  a  papyrus  book  which  originally  contained  the  en- 
tire New  Testament  or  perhaps  was  confined  to  Paul's  epistles. 
The  text  is  beautifully  written  in  narrow  parallel  columns; 
it  is  essentially  intact  and  agrees  exactly  with  Westcott  and 
Hort,  except  in  a  few  cases  of  poor  spelling  and  one  rather 
remarkable  variant  (2  Cor.  11:4),  where  the  adjective  "dif- 
ferent" is  omitted  :  "If  he  that  cometh  preacheth  another  Jesus 
.  .  .  or  if  ye  receive  a  different  spirit  ...  or  a  gospel  which 
ye  did  not  accept,"  etc. 

Gal.  2:  5,  6  (5th  Century) — This  uncial  text,  which  was  first 
published  in  1913  (Pap.  greci  e  latini,  II,  No.  118),  gives  but 
the  last  two  words  of  verse  5,  and  shows  the  same  defects  of 

'''"  I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  E.  J.  Goodspeed,  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
for  the  suggestion  of  this  possibility. 


156     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

transcription  as  many  of  the  other  passages  previously  given; 
e.g.,  in  verse  6  there  is  a  slight  transposition  of  words. 

P.  Gal.  3:16-24  (Late  5th  Century) — Two  pages  ahnost 
complete  of  a  small  parchment  leaf  (cir.  45^  x  2^  in.)  with 
narrow  margins,  published  in  1915  {Pap.  greci  e  latiiii,  III, 
No.  251).  It  contains  t,'/  lines,  written  in  straight  and  accurate 
uncials,  punctuated  by  two  hands.  In  two  readings  it  agrees 
with  the  Western  text,  but  otherwise  with  Westcott  and  Hort, 
except  for  one  or  two  unimportant  verbal  mistakes  in  tran- 
scription, such  as  in  verse  24,  where  the  perfect  tense  is  used 
instead  of  the  present.  It  contains  the  great  argument  of 
St.  Paul  concerning  the  promise  "not  of  seeds  [as  of]  many; 
but  as  of  one  ...  to  thy  seed  .  ,  .  Christ."  The  covenant 
of  Abraham  cannot  be  annulled  by  the  law  which  came  cen- 
turies later;  rather  the  law  was  our  schoolmaster  (jraiS- 
aycoYog)  to  bring  us  to  Christ  that  by  faith  we  might  be 
justified.  In  line  eleven  "Jesus  Christ"  is  abbreviated  to 
IV  Xv. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  New  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
the  Epistle  of  James. 

P.  James  i  :  10-12,  15-18  (4th  Century) — This  is  a  leaf  (Oxy- 
rhynchus  Papyri,  X,  No.  1229),  from  a  papyrus  Bible  over 
1,500  years  old.  It  gives  the  ordinary  Westcott  and  Hort 
text,  but  has  a  grossly  ungrammatical  form  in  verse  17.  The 
numbers  of  the  pages  marked  on  the  leaf  prove  that  the 
ancient  book  began  with  the  first  chapter  of  James.  It  prob- 
ably contained  only  this  one  Bible  book.  The  ancient  Chris- 
tians evidently  believed  in  the  very  modern  custom  of  pub- 
lishing the  New  Testament  in  handy  editions.  Our  text  con- 
trasts the  blessedness  of  tlie  poor  with  the  rich,  declares  the 
man  that  endureth  temptation  "shall  receive  the  crown  of 
life,"  and  points  out  that  every  good  gift  cometh  from  the 
Father  of  lights,  who  "of  his  own  will  brought  us  forth  by 
the  word  of  truth."  There  is  some  ornamentation  occasionally 
attempted,  and  the  height  of  the  leaf  was  over  7^  inches,  so 
that  this  probably  was  a  church  Bible,  altho  the  writing  is 
rather  coarse  and  irregular. 

James  1:25-27  (5th  Century) — This  text  was  published  re- 
cently by  the  Italians  {Pap.  greci e  latini,  I,  No.  5).    It  agrees 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     157 

with  the  Westcott  and  Hort  text ;  the  fact  that  one  Greek  word 
is  spHt  into  two  might,  however,  suggest  that  the  copyist  did 
not  understand  the  language  very  well.  The  pages  have 
the  numbers  17  and  18  on  the  margin. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  New  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
the  First  General  Epistle  of  Peter. 

I  Peter  2:21-25;  5:1-5.  (6th  Century) — This  large  leaf 
was  published  by  Wessely  {op.  cit.,  Theol.  Inhalts,  II,  No. 
60  B).  It  represents  another  of  the  ancient  bi-lingual  New 
Testaments,  the  Coptic  translation  being  found  on  the  same 
page  with  the  Greek  text.  There  are  sixty-seven  lines  of 
Greek  well  preserved.  It  is  not  very  carefully  written.  In 
2 :  20  the  scribe  inserts  "and" ;  in  verse  23  toy  tojtov  ;  in  verse 
24  he  omits  "in" ;  in  5 :  i  he  inserts  "the"  before  elders  and 
leaves  out  "therefore" ;  in  the  second  verse  he  not  only  inter- 
changes some  words  but  also  inserts  "according  to  the  will 
of  God"  and  "exercising  oversight,"  which  the  best  texts  omit ; 
and  he  succeeds  also  in  various  places  in  misspelling  several 
words. 

I  Peter  5:5-13.  (4th  Century.) — This  text  was  first  pub- 
lished in  1915  (Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  XI,  No.  1353). 
It  is  a  thin  vellum  leaf,  broken  and  worm-eaten  and  very 
small,  measuring  only  about  five  by  four  inches  in  size.  The 
scribe  writes  in  abnormally  large  characters,  thus  proving 
himself  to  be  untrained  at  such  work.  As  the  page  of  this 
particular  leaf  was  numbered  229,  it  is  evident  that  the  book 
was  of  considerable  size.  If  the  New  Testament  books  were 
then  in  the  same  order  as  now,  this  volume  probably  began 
with  Romans.  In  that  case  this  was  near  the  end  of  the  sec- 
ond volume,  the  first  volume  containing  the  four  gospels  and 
the  Acts.  The  text  is  decidedly  unique,  not  agreeing  with  any 
of  the  main  authorities,  the  slight  variations  being  too  many 
to  notice  here.  There  is  no  change,  however,  in  the  exalted 
teaching  which  shines  gloriously  from  the  broken  sentences 
of  this  very  ancient  pocket  Bible :  "Casting  all  your  care  upon 
him,  for  he  careth  for  you.  .  .  .  The  God  of  all  grace  who 
hath  called  into  his  eternal  glory  in  Christ  ...  to  him  be 
glory  forever  and  ever." 


158     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Fragments  of  Ancient  New  Testaments  Containing  Portions  of 
Revelation. 

Rev.  3:19 — 4:1-2.  (4th  Century) — This  vellum  leaf 
(Oxyrhynchiis  Papyri,  VIII,  No.  1080)  represents  the  ordi- 
nary critical  text,  tho  there  are  several  minute  marginal  cor- 
rections by  a  second  hand — one  at  least  of  which  (4:7)  is 
incorrectly  made.  It  contains  the  beautiful  words  to  the 
church  in  Laodicea :  "Behold  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock  ; 
if  any  man  hear  my  voice  and  open  the  door  I  will  come  in 
to  him  and  will  sup  with  him  and  he  with  me,"  etc.  This 
also  contains  the  curious  reading  "He  that  hath  hearing  be- 
yond his  ears  let  him  hear."  The  most  interesting  thing 
about  this  miniature  edition  of  the  Bible  is  that  its  form 
proves  conclusively  that  this  volume  did  not  contain  all 
the  New  Testament  but  only  the  Apocalypse. 

P.  Rev.  5  :  5-8 ;  6 :  5-8.  (Early  4th  Century)— Published  Oxy- 
rhynchiis Papyri,  X,  No.  1230.  This  is  a  leaf  from  a  papyrus 
book  containing  no  special  features.  It  speaks  of  the  elders 
falling  before  the  Lamb,  and  the  opening  of  the  seals.  So 
far  as  it  goes  the  text  "agrees  with  the  Codex  Sinaiticus" 
(Hunt).  Each  line  is  broken,  both  at  the  beginning  and  the 
end.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  g  is  used  for  snxd  in  the 
expression  "seven  spirits  of  God"  (verse  7).  The  text  reads: 
g  jtva  rov  Qv. 

An  Ancient  Fifth  Century  New  Testament  Containing  Portions 
of  All  the  Four  Gospels. 

Matt.  3:7-17;  4:23-25;  5:  1-12;  7:  13-25;  10:37-42;  Mark 
6 :  18-29 ;  Luke  2  :  1-20 ;  1 1 :  27-32 ;  24 :  36-38 ;  John  20 :  1-18, 
24-27. — Catalogued  by  Gregory  as  W032,  and  beautifully 
edited  by  Wessely  in  1912  {Gricchische  und  koptische  Texte; 
Theol.  Inhalts,  III,  No.  184,  Text  19).  Fragmentary  as 
these  gospels  are  as  here  given,  they  still  make  ten  solid  pages 
of  the  Greek  text,  seventy  lines  to  a  page.  With  but  perhaps 
one  exception  to  be  mentioned  later,  no  greater  New  Testa- 
ment discovery,  so  far  as  the  text  is  concerned,  has  been 
made  since  the  days  of  Tischendorf.  We  have  here  not 
merely  a  single  leaf  of  an  ancient  book  snatched  by  the  rav- 
ages of  time  out  of  its  proper  connection,  but  we  possess  in 
substantial   shape   a  considerable  part  of  the   four  gospels 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     159 

which  were  bound  together  into  one  volume  over  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  ago.  The  manuscript  is  beautifully  written,  but 
with  the  same  slight  variations  in  spelling,  etc.,  from  the 
classical  forms,  which  were  universal  in  ancient  manuscripts 
written  by  the  middle  classes  in  the  early  Christian  centur- 
ies. The  same  rather  startling  abbreviation  of  the  word 
'"cross"  (c-pTJ  is  used  which  we  have  seen  previously  in 
other  manuscripts,  the  cross  itself  being  shown  in  the  middle 
of  the  word.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  given  with  almost 
absolute  verbal  perfection — better  than  any  senior  class  in 
a  modern  theological  seminary  would  be  likely  to  copy  it. 
This  shows  that  the  copyist  knew  that  portion  of  the  Scrip- 
ture word  for  word.  In  many  other  places  there  are  slight 
variations  in  spelling  and  an  occasional  change  in  the  order 
of  words,  and  in  one  or  two  cases  a  change  in  case,  due  evi- 
dently to  the  copyist  reading  the  sentence  and  then  repeating 
it  from  memory  as  he  wrote  it ;  but  in  no  case  is  there  any 
change  in  doctrine  or  any  contradiction  of  the  gospel  facts. 
In  Matt.  3 :  7  the  scribe  uses  a  synonym  for  "warned."  In 
Matt  4 :  24  he  repeats  a  syllable,  and  in  5 :  2  he  by  accident 
makes  a  wrong  letter  and  turns  it  into  an  ornament ;  but  the 
Beatitudes  he  knows  so  well  that  he  writes  them  correctly 
word  for  word  and  letter  for  letter. 

In  Luke  2 : 2  the  name  of  the  governor  Quirinius  is  mis- 
spelled, and  in  verse  11  "Christ  the  Lord"  is  abbreviated  curi- 
ously. In  John  20 :  7  instead  of  the  napkin  "that  was  upon 
his  head"  this  copy,  by  a  slight  change,  reads  "which  had  been 
provided  for  the  head";  and  in  verse  17  the  text  reads  "He 
saith"  instead  of  "Jesus  saith,"  while  in  verse  16  the  custom- 
ary "Rabboni"  became  "Rabbounei."  In  still  another  place 
"therefore"  is  omitted ;  in  verse  25  a  particle  is  inserted  and 
in  verse  10  the  reading  is  "so  they  then  went  back  to  the  dis- 
ciples." 

The  only  variation  in  sense  in  any  passage  is  in  Matt.  7:  18, 
where  instead  of  writing  "neither  can  a  corrupt  tree  bring 
forth  good  fruit,"  this  ancient  copyist  has  written  "neither 
can  a  good  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit."  The  early  Chris- 
tian's love  for  his  Bible  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  instead  of 
mutilating  the  text  some  reader  far  back  in  that  ancient 
world  has  put  in  the  margin — "sic!" 


i6o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Many  great  texts  are  preserved  in  this  manuscript  copy  of 
the  gospels  which  is  over  1,400  years  old.  In  the  Matthew 
fragments  we  have  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist;  the 
statement  that  Jesus  was  "healing  all  manner  of  disease" ; 
the  entire  list  of  Beatitudes ;  the  great  teaching  concerning 
the  narrow  gate  and  the  broad  way  and  the  judgment  of  a 
tree  by  its  fruit ;  and  the  passage  centering  in  the  doctrine, 
"He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth  his 
life  for  my  sake  shall  find  it."  In  the  Mark  passage  we  have 
the  entire  story  of  Herodias  and  the  murder  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist. In  the  Luke  passages  we  possess  the  narrative  of  the 
birth  of  Jesus  and  the  song  of  the  shepherds — which  reads 
"on  earth  peace  and  good  will  among  men" ;  Christ's  state- 
ment that  no  sign  shall  be  given  to  an  evil  generation,  but 
"the  sign  of  Jonah" ;  and  the  appearance  of  Jesus  to  his 
disciples  after  his  resurrection  saying,  "Peace  unto  you !" 
The  remnants  of  John's  gospel  are  even  more  important,  in- 
cluding the  visit  of  Mary  Magdalene  and  Peter  to  the  sepul- 
chre on  the  morning  of  the  resurrection,  the  meeting  of  the 
Savior  with  Mary,  and  finally  the  refusal  of  Thomas  to  be- 
lieve in  the  resurrection  until  Jesus  appeared  to  him  person- 
ally.   Our  fragment  reads : 

"And  after  eight  days  again  his  disciples  were  within,  and 
Thomas  with  them.  Jesus  cometh,  the  doors  being  shut,  and 
stood  in  the  midst  and  said,  Peace  be  unto  you.  Then  saith 
he  to  Thomas,  Reach  hither  thy  finger,"  etc. 

THE  MOST  VALUABLE  OF  ALL  THE  NEWLY 
•     DISCOVERED  MANUSCRIPTS 

An  Ancient  Fourth  or  Fifth  Century  New  Testament  Containing 
the  Entire  Four  Gospels  and  Fragments  of  the  Pauline 
Epistles.     (Washington  Codex,  1908-9.)  ^^ 

Never  since  the  startling  discovery  of  Tischendorf 
has  there  been  greater  joy  than  came  to  the  hearts  of 
textual  critics  when  Prof.  Henry  A.  Sanders,  of  the 
L^niversity  of  Michigan,  announced  that  Mr.  Charles  L. 

"  While  Dr.  Gregory  briefly  mentioned  this  discovery,  it  was  impossible 
properly  to  estimate  it  previous  to  its  publication  in  full  with  critical  notes 
in  1912.  Cf.  New  Testament  Manuscripts  in  the  Freer  Collection,  Part  I., 
1912,  by  Prof.  Henry  A.  Sanders. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED    i6i 

Freer,  of  Detroit,  Michigan,  had  obtained  in  Egypt  a 
New  Testament  manuscript  which,  in  its  completeness 
and  age,  could  rank  with  the  three  great  MSS.  of  the 
world,  being  certainly  not  later  than  the  sixth  cen- 
tury and  being  probably  as  old  as  the  Sinaitic  Codex. 
Not  only  its  venerable  antiquity,  but  the  fact  that  its 
readings  often  sustained  the  Western  (Bezae)  text  as 
against  the  usually  accepted  Eastern  text  added  to  the 
unique  value  of  this  discovery,  while  adding  at  the  same 
time  to  the  difficulties  of  text  criticism.  It  determined 
once  for  all  the  fact  that  as  early  as  the  third,  or  per- 
haps the  second  century,  there  were  at  least  two  or 
three  independent  types  of  New  Testament  texts,  all 
of  these  being  alike  in  their  statement  of  essential  facts 
and  doctrine,  but  differing  considerably  in  their  verbal 
form.  It  seemed  to  settle  the  question  that  there 
was  no  settled  and  stiff  form  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment text  necessary  to  orthodoxy  at  that  time,  as 
came  later  to  be  the  case,  both  with  the  Greek  and 
Hebrew  Bibles;  but  that  several  verbal  types  existed 
peacefully  together.  This  adds  greatly  to  the  apolo- 
getic value  of  this  early  document,  but  complicates  the 
question  concerning  the  ''original"  text.  The  manu- 
script, which  was  also  accompanied  by  three  others 
containing  the  books  of  Deuteronomy,  Joshua,  and  the 
Psalms,  was  bought  by  Mr.  Freer  of  an  Arab  dealer 
named  Ali,  in  Gizeh,  near  Cairo,  December  19,  1906. 
Professor  Sanders  saw  the  manuscript  for  the  first  time 
in  October,  1907,  and  at  once  recognized  its  value.  The 
dealer  from  whom  it  was  bought  first  declared  that  it 
had  been  obtained  at  Akhmim,  but  later  denied  this. 
Certainly  a  very  unusual  treasure  of  manuscripts  about 
1906  was  discovered  near  Akhmim;  and  Carl  Schmidt, 


i62    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Edgar  J.  Goodspeed  and  others  feel  that  it  is  incredible 
to  think  of  two  such  unique  and  vast  finds  of  Biblical 
manuscripts  being  made  in  the  same  year  in  two  sepa- 
rate localities,  no  other  such  discovery  of  large  Biblical 
MSS.  having  been  made  for  at  least  half  a  century. 
Professor  Sanders,  however,  is  very  sure  that  it  was 
found  among  the  ruins  of  some  monastery  in  the  Delta, 
probably  that  of  the  Vine  Dresser,  the  site  of  which  was 
close  to  the  Third  Pyramid,  instead  of  coming,  as 
Schmidt  and  others  supposed,  from  the  White  Monas- 
tery near  Sohag,  opposite  Akhmim.^^ 

In  1910  Professor  Sanders  dated  this  manuscript 
in  the  fifth  century  {op.  cit.,  p.  13),  but  in  191 2  he 
changed  this  to  the  early  fifth  or  second  half  of  the 
fourth  century,  and  a  little  later  dated  the  main  part  of 
the  manuscript  without  any  reservation  to  the  fourth 
century,^^  having  the  approval  of  the  great  expert.  Dr. 
B.  P.  Grenfell,  in  this  more  mature  dating.  Granting 
this,  we  have  here  a  manuscript  equal  in  importance  to 
any  now  in  existence.  This  would  make  the  writer  of 
this  manuscript  to  have  lived  as  near  to  the  traditional 
date  of  Saint  John  as  we  are  to  the  father  of  John 
Alden,  whose  old  Bible  we  can  now  see  at  Plymouth. 

Two  early  owners  of  the  manuscript,  as  shown  by 
the  notes,  lived  in  the  fifth  century,  and  a  third  owner 
in  the  sixth  century.  The  subscription  in  diminutive 
uncials,  written  presumably  by  one  of  the  earliest  own- 
ers, but  dating  from  the  fifth  century,  reads: 

"Holy  Christ,  be  thou  with  thy  servant  Timothy  and  all  of  his." 

"See  on  the  general  controversy  Bib.  World,  33:201-6;  Am.  Journal 
of  Theology,  13:  597-603;  IS:  112,  115;  Am.  Journal  of  Arcliceology,  XIII.; 
Old  Test.  MSS.  in  the  Freer  Collection,  Part  I,  Henry  A.  Sanders,  1910, 
Iiitroduction. 

''New  Test.  MSS.,  Part  I.,  p.  135-139;  Facsimile  of  Wash.  MSS.,  Intro- 
duction, 1913. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     163 

The  manuscript  is  written  on  parchment  of  excel- 
lent quahty,  which  has,  however,  suffered  exceedingly 
from  age,  wear,  and  exposure.  It  is  not  so  elegant  as 
the  Codex  Sinaiticus,  but  was  undoubtedly  intended  for 
a  magnificent  copy.  The  edges  of  the  leaves  are  badly 
decayed,  but  the  body  of  the  manuscript  is  well  pro- 
tected by  painted  board  covers,  which  were  put  on  the 
manuscript  probably  in  the  ninth  century.  These  cov- 
ers are  very  curious,  containing  pictures  of  the  Evan- 
gelists, John  and  Mark,  both  being  represented  as 
white-haired,  and  Mark  being  slightly  bald  after  the 
Pauline  type.  The  parchment  is  mostly  made  of  sheep- 
skin, tho  some  goatskin  leaves  occur.  The  ink  is 
dark  brown,  but  that  of  the  first  quire  of  John  is 
darker.  The  writing  is  in  one  column,  30  lines  to  a 
page.  At  present  there  remain  374  pages  (187  leaves), 
two  blank  pages  appearing  at  the  end  of  John's  gospel. 
The  usual  abbreviations  occur  and  a  few  uniisual  ones; 
for  example,  Kvqioi;  (Lord)  in  Matthew  appears  in 
five  different  forms  (Kg,  Kv,  Kco,  Kv,  Ke),  each  case 
receiving  its  appropriate  abbreviation.  This  name 
is  always  abbreviated  when  referring  to  God,  other- 
wise not.  Punctuation  is  rare ;  a  single  dot  is  regularly 
used,  a  double  dot  occasionally;  phrases  are  separated 
by  small  blank  spaces.  "The  remarkable  variations  in 
paragraphing  in  the  different  parts  of  the  MS.  indi- 
cate quite  plainly  the  care  of  the  scribe  in  following  his 
patchwork  copy."  The  scribe  actually  seems  to  copy 
mistakes  in  the  original  parent  papyrus,  even  continu- 
ing the  gross  misspelling  of  certain  common  words. 
The  manuscript  once  contained  the  whole  of  the  four 
gospels  in  the  order  Matthew,  John,  Luke,  Mark 
(Western    order).      Two    lacunae    now    occur    (John 


i64    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

14:  25-16:  7;  Mark  15:  13-38),  caused  by  the  dropping 
out  of  two  leaves.  *'The  remainder  of  the  MSS.  is  so 
perfect  that  there  is  rarely  a  letter  missing  or  indis- 
tinct." That  it  was  much  reverenced  in  the  early  cen- 
turies is  proved  by  the  blots  on  it  when  in  ancient  time 
the  tallow  dropt  from  candles  while  it  was  being 
shown  to  visitors,  or  the  early  saints  were  studying  it. 
The  peculiar  value  of  this  MS.  consists  in  its  affilia- 
tion with  the  old  Latin  and  Syriac,  the  so-called  West- 
ern text.  The  only  spectacular  reading,  however,  is 
found  in  an  extra  passage  which  follows  Mark  16:  14: 

And  they  defended  themselves,  saying:  This  world  of  law- 
lessness and  of  unbelief  is  under  Satan,  which  does  not  suffer 
those  unclean  things  that  are  under  the  dominion  of  spirits  to 
comprehend  the  true  power  of  God.  On  this  account  reveal  th}- 
righteousness  now.  They  said  (these  things)  to  Christ.  And  Christ 
replied  to  them  :There  has  been  fulfilled  the  term  of  year,  of  the 
authority  of  Satan,  but  other  dreadful  things  are  drawing  nigh 
(even  to  those)  for  the  sake  of  whom  as  sinners  I  was  delivered 
up  to  death  in  order  that  they  might  return  to  the  truth  and  sin 
no  more ;  in  order  that  they  might  inherit  the  spiritual  and  incor- 
ruptible glory  of  righteousness  which  is  in  heaven,  but  go  .  .  . 

The  style  of  this  addendum  is  so  different  from  the 
other  portions  of  Mark's  gospel  that  it  seems  to  the 
writer  impossible  to  think  of  it  as  an  original  reading. 
It  was  perhaps  a  marginal  note  which  came  from  very 
early  time  and  crept  into  the  text. 

Other  Fragments  of  Ancient  Neiv  Testaments — One 
Written  on  Pieces  of  a  Broken  Pot 

In  addition  to  the  above  twenty-eight  ancient  New- 
Testaments  recently  discovered — to  which  must  be 
added  the  fourteen  MSS.  written  on  skin,  catalogued  by 
Gregory  in  1909,  and  the  twenty  written  on  papyrus 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     165 

reported  by  Drs.  Keiiyon  and  Milligan  in  191 2- 13 — 
multitudes  of  other  Bible  texts  have  come  down  to  us 
from  the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  later  centuries,  some 
of  which  almost  certainly  must  originally  have  belonged 
to  entire  gospels,  but  which  are  so  mutilated  that  this 
can  not  certainly  be  proved.  There  must  also  be  a  num- 
ber of  other  bi-lingual  texts  known  to  scholars — such 
as  those  used  by  Horner  in  his  study  of  the  Coptic  ver- 
sion of  the  New  Testament,  and  others  reported  else- 
where (e.g.,  Le  Muscon  N.  S.,  XII:  2,  3;  XIII  (1912), 
pp.  175-365).  But  the  writer  has  been  unable  personally 
to  examine  these  Greek  texts  and,  therefore,  can  not 
describe  and  estimate  them.  One  of  the  most  curious 
collections  of  these  early  Bible  texts  is  that  which  was 
made  by  three  poor  Christians  during  the  time  of  the 
Arab  conquest,  the  Greek  text  of  the  gospels  being 
written  on  pieces  of  broken  pottery  because  they  were 
unable  to  afford  papyri.  Twenty  of  these  ostraca  have 
come  down  to  us  covering  Matt.  27:  31,  32;  Mark 
5:40,  41;  9:17,  18,  22;  15:21;  Luke  22:13-15,  16, 
40-71;  John  i:  1-9,  14-17;  18:  19-25;  19:  15-17.^^  Each 
ostracon  is  numbered,  the  series  being  written  either 
to  form  "a  cheap  gospel  lectionary  .  .  .  for  private  or 
public  reading  consisting  of  extracts  from  the  gospels 
or  perhaps  even  a  continuous  text"  (Lefebvre),  or 
perhaps  by  candidates  for  deacons  orders  or  by  some 
monk  or  school-boy,  or  possibly  by  some  ignorant 
layman,  or  some  "simple  woman — some  soul  forgotten 
among  the  myriads  that  perish"  (Deissmann).  If, 
indeed,  these  twenty  written  scraps  represent,  as 
they  may  well  do,  a  seventh  century  copy  of  the  gos- 
pels, they  stand  for  the  most  unique  volume  ever  writ- 

"  See  further,  Deissmann,  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  pp.  49-52. 


l66    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ten.  A  New  Testament  written  on  potsherds!  If  this 
is  indeed  true,  then  we  ought  to  have  given  this  the 
place  of  honor  in  our  catalog  of  newly  discovered 
ancient  New  Testaments.  Dr.  Deissmann  publishes  one 
of  these  in  facsimile,  and  it  gives  one  a  thrill  to  spell 
out  of  this  rough  scrawl  on  a  piece  of  a  broken  pot 
written  over  twelve  centuries  ago  the  words: 

"And  they  all  said,  Art  thou  then  the  Son  of  God?  And  he 
said  unto  them,  Ye  say  that  I  am.  And  they  said,  What  further 
need  have  we  of  witness,  for  we  ourselves  have  heard  from  .  .  . 
mouth." 

The  unexpectedness  of  the  discovery  of  valuable 
Biblical  texts  written  on  broken  pottery  may  be  seen 
from  the  fact  that  up  to  within  a  decade  and  a  half  no 
one  ever  regarded  these  potsherds  as  important,  and 
excavators  as  well  as  the  fellaheen  had  usually  thrown 
them  away  as  useless  rubbish.  The  first  appreciation 
of  their  importance  came  from  Ulrich  Wilcken  in  his 
work,  Greek  Ostraca  in  Egypt  and  Nubia,  in  1899,  fol- 
lowed by  W.  E.  Crum's  Coptic  Ostraca,  in  1902. 

(5)    SPECIAL    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    NEWLY    DISCOVERED 
NEW  TESTAMENT  FRAGMENTS  FOR  TEXT  CRITICISM^^ 

No  one  would  be  likely  to  deny  the  importance  of 
the  larger  manuscripts  such  as  the  last  two  described 
above,  but  it  may  seem  as  if  many  of  the  others  are 
too  small  to  be  considered  of  any  special  value.  This 
is  a  mistake.  While  Gregory's  list,  given  above,  totals 
only  a  little  more  than  one  hundred  verses,  and  our  own 

*^This  argument  was  first  given  by  the  writer  in  December,  1915,  be- 
fore the  Society  of  Biblical  Literature  and  Exegesis  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, and  can  only  be  summarized  here. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     167 

list  is  not  much  larger,  yet  in  Gregory's  list  thirty 
verses  from  three  different  New  Testaments  date  from 
the  fourth  century,  and  in  our  list  over  forty  verses 
come  from  two  New  Testaments  dating  from  the  third 
century  (a  century  earlier  than  any  MSS.  known  pre- 
vious to  these  discoveries)  ;  while  Kenyon's  list  con- 
tains some  forty  verses  from  three  New  Testaments  of 
the  third  century  and  several  hundreds  of  verses  from 
seven  or  eight  other  New  Testaments  dating  from  the 
fourth  century. 

But  it  is  not  the  large  number  of  verses  discovered, 
or  even  their  early  date,  which  alone  gives  these  manu- 
scripts their  remarkable  value;  but  rather  the  unusual 
character  of  many  of  these  texts  and  their  provenance. 
The  unique  importance  of  these  new  discoveries  can 
be  properly  apprehended  only  when  one  notes  that  prac- 
tically all  of  them  came  from  Egypt,  and  almost  all 
from  a  distant  country  province,  presumably  much  less 
influenced  by  the  official  Church  texts  of  Alexandria, 
not  to  speak  of  Antioch,  or  Csesarea,  or  Rome,  than  if 
they  had  been  found  in  the  Delta  (see  pp.  65-97). 
Besides,  there  is  a  strong  probability  that  a  con- 
siderable number  of  these  New  Testaments  were  pri- 
vate property,  not  official  texts — church  Bibles  written 
by  church  officials  with  possible  ecclesiastical  tendencies 
— but  poor  men's  Bibles  written  on  poor  material  by 
poor  men,  who  were  also  poor  penmen,  for  private  use. 

If  this  be  accepted  as  true  these  discoveries  ought 
almost  to  mark  a  new  epoch  in  New  Testament  criti- 
cism. Our  great  codices  from  which  come  our  A.V. 
and  R.V.,  represent  church  New  Testaments  written  by 
trained  scribes,  and  come  from  great  centers  of  ecclesi- 
astical  influence,   but   in   these   earliest   texts   just   de- 


i68    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

scribed,  we,  for  the  first  time,  can  see  how  the  New 
Testament  of  the  poor  man  in  a  country  district  differed 
from  that  of  the  rich  man  and  the  priest,  and  here  we 
have  our  first  opportunity  to  see  how  the  primitive  New 
Testament  looked  before  it  became  stereotyped  into  the 
authorized  versions  of  the  East  and  the  West. 

We  have  previously  shown  that  the  Fayum,  so  in- 
tirnately  connected  with  the  towns  in  which  most  of 
these  texts  were  found,  was  separated  in  a  marked  way 
from  the  financial,  social,  and  ecclesiastical  centers  of 
Egypt.  The  whole  district  had  practically  gone  to  ruin 
toward  the  end  of  the  third  century.  The  villages  were 
stranded.  Even  the  celebrated  Moros  brothers  lived  in 
a  house  that  did  not  cost  much  more  than  a  camel,  and 
the  poverty  of  these  villages  as  well  as  their  distance 
from  Alexandria  insured  little  travel  to  this  devastated 
district  by  any  church  officials  who  might  have  been 
interested  in  the  minute  orthodoxy  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment text  used  by  the  Fayum  Christians.  The  papyri 
prove  that  most  of  these  towns  had  a  bank  or  two, 
and  that  there  were  a  few  three-story  houses,  cer- 
tainly a  chain  of  laundries,  a  number  of  pawn-brokers' 
establishments,  and  certain  other  supposedly  infallible 
signs  of  civilization,  such  as  easy  divorce,  monopolies 
of  farm  products  and  manufactured  goods,  and  loans 
at  I  per  cent,  a  month;  but  the  churches  of  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries  in  the  Fayum  were  very  poor. 
Even  at  Socnopaei  Nesus,  whose  ruins  cover  forty  acres 
and  which  must  be  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  import- 
ant and  populous  of  these  southern  towns,  there  are 
few  evidences  of  luxury  and  no  suggestions  up  to  the 
date  of  its  destruction  (end  of  the  third  century)  that 
hierarchical  authority  from  Alexandria  was  dominating 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     169 

the  Christian  population.  That  the  entire  Fayum  was 
isolated  from  the  Delta  is  shown  not  only  by  the  fre- 
quent misspellings  of  the  names  of  reigning  emperors 
and  by  the  mistakes  in  the  regnal  year,  but  by  the  local 
dialect  used  and  by  the  fact  that  the  monks  and  anchor- 
ites chose  this  neighborhood  as  their  hiding-place.  That 
the  church  censorship  was  not  very  rigid,  either  here 
or  in  adjacent  towns  like  Oxyrhynchus,  is  clearly  indi- 
cated by  the  fact  that  this  was  the  special  home  of  the 
non-canonical  gospels.  The  poverty  of  the  population  has 
been  illustrated  in  almost  every  text  excavated  and  is 
strikingly  shown  by  multitudes  of  unmistakable  signs, 
among  which  may  be  noted,  in  passing,  that  in  all  the 
papyri  there  is  scarcely  a  mention  of  silversmiths,  while 
even  in  the  fourth  century,  when  the  cost  of  material 
had  risen  to  a  preposterous  height,  the  "Guild  of  Cop- 
persmiths" at  Oxyrhynchus  could  report  that  the  full 
value  of  all  their  stock  remaining  on  hand  at  the  end 
of  the  month  amounted  to  only  1,000  denarii  {Oxy- 
rhynchus Papyri,  I,  85).  There  are  evidently  addi- 
tional reasons,  therefore,  beyond  any  previously  appre- 
ciated, why  we  are  compelled  to  decide  that  such  splen- 
did vokmies  as  the  Codex  Sinaiticus  and  the  Codex 
Vaticanus  w^re  not  likely  to  have  been  produced  at 
Oxyrhynchus,"^  and  that  such  poor  New  Testaments 
as  were  written  there  would  not  have  the  same  ecclesi- 
astical censorship  as  might  have  been  exercised  at 
Alexandria. 

All  of  this  shows  the  importance  to  be  attached 
especially  to  the  small  and  worst-written  copies  of  these 
ancient  New  Testaments,  which  presumably  represented 
the  Bibles  of  the  poor  coming  from  unofficial  sources 

**C/.  Kirsopp  Lake,  Codex  Sinaiticus,  1911,  p.  13. 


lyo    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

(out  of  a  culture  which  must  be  ranked,  I  think,  not  only- 
lower  than  that  of  Herculaneum,  but  much  lower  than 
that  of  Pompeii  or  Timgad),  and  which,  at  least  occa- 
sionally, give  us  types  of  New  Testament  texts  differing 
both  from  that  which  was  approved  by  Constantine  and 
that  which  was  favored  by  the  Alexandrian  scribes. 
Very  few  of  these  third  and  fourth  century  New  Testa- 
ments are  well  written.  While  the  chirography  is  usu- 
ally better  than  that  of  ordinary  letters  and  legal  docu- 
ments, yet  even  some  of  the  wills  and  deeds  and  regis- 
trations of  cattle  were  written  more  carefully.  The 
script  is  coarse  and  irregular,  and  the  general  impres- 
sion very  inferior  to  that  given  by  any  one  of  our  great 
uncials  or  by  the  scraps  of  Old  Testament  texts  which 
have  been  preserved  from  the  same  period;  while  these 
rudely  written  Testaments,  almost  always  with  little  or 
no  punctuation  or  ornamentation,  are  in  striking  con- 
trast to  the  beautifully  engrossed  works  of  Homer  and 
Plato,  Menander  and  Pindar,  the  Commentary  on  the 
Iliad,  the  new  History  of  Greece  by  Cratippus,  and 
most  of  the  other  classics  coming  from  the  same  or  an 
earlier  time.  They  are  even  surpassed  generally  by 
the  uncanonical  gospels  and  the  "Sayings  of  Jesus." 
Some  of  them  are  written  on  the  poorest  kind  of  mate- 
rial and  several  are  written  on  the  back  of  earlier 
literary  works.  It  goes  without  saying  that  these  texts, 
besides  omissions  of  words  and  lines  and  blunders  of 
transcription  due  to  the  misreading  or  mispronuncia- 
tion of  words,  show  the  usual  grammar  of  the  Koine 
and  the  ordinary  mistakes  of  the  non-literary  papyri — 
interchange  of  vowels,  letters  improperly  inserted; 
above  all,  misspellings  quite  equal  to  any  a  modern 
workingman   would   be   likely   to   make.      When   one 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     171 

looks  at  the  crooked  grammar,  mixed  orthography,  and 
pecuhar  syntax  of  these  ancient  New  Testaments,  and 
notices  also  that  the  "readings"  in  many  places  are 
strikingly  independent  of  the  "standard"  text,  it  would 
not  be  strange  if  he  thought,  at  first  glance,  that  they 
could  be  of  no  possible  importance  in  text  criticism.  But 
such  a  decision  would  be  unsound. 

Previous  to  these  discoveries  all  leading  textual 
critics  rested  confidently  on  two  or  three  great  manu- 
scripts representing  fundamentally  the  Eastern  text,  be- 
lieving that  the  Western  text  (typically  represented  by 
the  Bezse  Codex)  must  be  considered  "foul."  But  these 
new  papyri  discoveries,  as  Dr.  Turner  and  other  distin- 
guished Bible  critics  have  fully  shown,  carry  back  the 
Western  text  at  least  to  the  third  century.^^  Von  Soden 
in  his  massive  work  has  made  it  perfectly  clear,  tho  his 
preference  for  Western  readings  may  be  deprecated, 
that  as  early  as  the  third  and  perhaps  as  early  as  the 
second  century  there  were  at  least  three  distinct  types 
of  national  texts  emanating  respectively  from  Pales- 
tine, Syria,  and  Egypt.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  as  was 
once  universally  thought,  that  these  various  types  of 
texts  grew  up  through  deliberate  intention  to  alter  the 
original  Scriptures.^*  Instead  of  this  it  now  becomes 
plain  that  these  are  mere  local  verbal  variations  of  the 
Bible  story,  all  giving  the  same  facts  but  with  local 
differences  which  date  back  probably  to  apostolic  times. 

It  is  evident  that  the  value  of  these  early  texts  is 

**  Of  course  the  standard  work  in  this  field  is  Von  Soden's  Die  Schrif- 
ten  des  neuen  Testaments  (Berlin,  1902-15;  but  compare  F.  C.  Burkitt, 
Texts  and  Studies,  V.     (1899),  p.  XVIII.). 

'^Von  Soden  affirms  that  excepting  the  influence  from  Tatian's  Har- 
mony of  the  Gospel,  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  of  any  extensive  altera- 
tion of  the  text  (cf.  Am.  Journal  of  Theology,  1916,  p.  410;  The  Inter- 
preter, July,  1915).  Of  course,  local  changes  were  not  at  all  uncommon 
(cf.  J.  Rendel  Harris,  Sidelights  on  New  Test.  Research,  pp.  5-60). 


172     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ininicasurably  increased  because  they  were  written  be- 
fore what  Von  Soden  well  calls  "the  mechanical  Jewish 
dogma  of  inspiration"  had  been  introduced.  There  is 
no  counting  of  words  or  letters,  and  no  settled  or  stiff 
form  of  text  such  as  seemed  a  little  later  so  necessary 
to  orthodoxy.  Let  it  again  be  emphasized  that  the 
earliest  of  these  newly  discovered  Egyptian  New  Testa- 
ments, especially  those  which  by  their  poor  writing  and 
small  size  evidently  represent  private  rather  than 
church  Bibles,  very  generally  differ  from  all  the 
national  texts  which  became  stereotyped  as  early  as  the 
third  century.  They  represent  a  really  neutral  text — - 
in  a  sense  different  from  that  in  which  the  Vatican 
MS.  can  be  called  neutral — a  text  which  has  come  to 
us  unexpectedly  and  which  shows  us  contemporaneous 
copies  of  the  kind  of  New  Testaments  used  by  the  early 
Christians  of  Egypt  in  the  pre-Constantine  era. 

It  may  be  thought  that  I  am  making  too  much  of 
this,  as  so  few  of  these  manuscripts  come  from  the  third 
century;  but  it  will  be  remembered  that  the  early  fourth 
century  texts  were  pre-Constantine,  and  that  even  late 
fourth  century,  or  early  fifth  century  texts,  when  writ- 
ten for  private  use  in  this  far-away  province,  would 
very  naturally  represent  a  text  much  less  official  than 
if  written  in  Alexandria  or  Carthage  or  Antioch  or 
Rome  for  church  use. 

It  is  true  that  trained  scribes  having  access  to  espe- 
cially fine  archetypes  had,  no  doubt,  better  advantages 
for  getting  at  the  primitive  text  and  correctly  copying 
it  than  these  rather  ignorant  countrymen;  yet  it  is 
something  to  get  in  these  newly  discovered  fragments 
a  contemporary  check  upon  our  great  uncials,  being 
now    able    to   examine    quite    a    number    of    the    New 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     173 

Testaments  which  were  actually  in  use  in  Egypt  at 
least  a  generation  before  Constantine's  royal  influence 
was  exerted  toward  text  standardization,  and  even  be- 
fore the  Antiochian  or  Alexandrian  revision  had  ob- 
tained general  acceptance. 

Having  said  this,  it  must  be  frankly  acknowledged 
that  nothing  very  spectacular  or  strange  has  been 
brought  to  light  in  these  sixty,  or  more,  new  texts.  The 
results  are  surprizingly  negative.  Tho  quite  a  number 
of  these  were  in  use  some  time  before  the  Eastern  or 
Western  standard  texts  became  "fixt,"  yet,  as  we  have 
seen,  very  few  variants  of  importance  occur.  However, 
what  could  be  better  than  just  such  a  negative  result? 
Let  us  once  more  state  the  general  facts. 

No  man  had  ever  seen  a  page  from  any  pre-Con- 
stantine  New  Testament  previous  to  these  discoveries. 
Many  supposed  that  if  such  Bibles  ever  came  to  light 
they  would  be  very  different  from  ours.  Some  skeptics 
frankly  exprest  their  opinion  that  the  present  New 
Testament  was  either  originated  by  Constantine  or 
much  changed  by  him.  But  now  these  New  Testa- 
ments are  in  our  hands.  We  now  know  the  kind  of 
New  Testament  which  the  poor  Christians  of  the 
martyr  period  were  using  and  reverencing.  It  was  the 
same  as  ours."^    It  is  now  certain  that  there  was  noth- 

*^  Scholars  generally  agree  that  the  papyri  substantially  support  the 
Westcott  and  Hort  Greek  text  lying  at  the  basis  of  our  Revised  Version. 
A  few,  like  Hoskier,  strongly  disagree  with  this,  believing  that  they  sup- 
port the  Bezae  type  of  text.  See  the  detailed  argument  in  Codex  B,  and 
Its  Allies,  by  H.  C.  Hoskier,  1914.  Certainly  the  papyri  show  a  pleasing 
independence,  possibly  more  in  harmony  with  Von  Soden's  eclectic  text 
than  with  Westcott  and  Hort's.  But  this  does  not  involve  any  material 
change,  as  may  be  seen  by  comparing  Moffatt's  new  translation  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  followed  the  Von  Soden  text,  with  the  Revised  Version. 
Since  writing  this  footnote,  I  am  pleased  to  find  this  decision  confirmed 
by  Dr.  A.  Savary,  after  a  careful  study  of  the  New  Test.  Papyri  fragments, 
Rev.  Or.  Chret.,  XVI,  396. 


174    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ing  of  importance  left  out  by  Constantine.  There  was 
nothing  put  in.  There  are  enough  verbal  changes 
among  these  many  New  Testaments  from  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries  to  prove  the  independence  of  the 
scribes  and  their  freedom  from  ecclesiastical  censorship, 
but  not  even  one  very  important  change  in  the  readings 
was  found,  and  no  change  whatever  in  the  teaching. 
The  results  confirm  surprizingly  the  ancient  text  as 
worked  out  by  the  scholarship  of  the  last  century. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  these  very  ancient  new 
MSS.  just  discovered  constitute  but  a  very  small  pro- 
portion of  the  text  material  which  scholars  have  before 
them  in  determining  the  Bible  text.  In  addition  to 
the  versions  to  be  mentioned  later  it  may  be  said — 
speaking  only  of  Greek  MSS. — that  Von  Soden  in  1902 
catalogued  2,328  New  Testament  manuscripts.  Of  these 
about  forty  contain  in  whole  or  part  all  the  books  of 
the  New  Testament.  Some  1,716  MSS.  contain  por- 
tions of  the  gospels,  581  of  the  Acts,  628  of  the  Pauline 
epistles,  and  219  of  the  Apocalypse.  The  text  of  no 
other  ancient  book  is  so  certain  as  that  of  the  New 
Testament. 

While  at  first  sight  it  might  seem  strange  that  so 
few  third  and  fourth  century  Bible  texts  have  come 
down  to  us,  yet  when  we  consider  the  perishable  nature 
of  the  papyrus  and  of  the  comparatively  few  texts  of 
any  kind  which  have  been  uncovered  from  that  far- 
distant  past,  it  becomes,  as  Wessely  somewhere  exprest 
it,  a  matter  contrary  to  all  expectation  and  almost 
"bordering  upon  the  miraculous"  that,  by  some  happy 
accident,  these  many  fragments  of  ancient  New  Testa- 
ments should  have  been  preserved.^^** 

''"  Sir.  F.  G.  Kenyon  in  1903  knew  only  109  MSS.  of  Homer,  11  of 
Plato,  and  20  of  Demosthenes. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     175 

2.  Syriac  New  Testaments 
Aramaic  was  the  native  language  of  the  Jews  in 
Palestine  in  the  first  century.  It  has  long  been  noticed 
that  our  Lord,  at  least  in  times  of  excitement,  spoke 
his  native  tongue.  Dalman  and  others  have  made 
this  perfectly  clear."^  It  is  very  likely  that  all  the  dis- 
ciples were  not  only  bi-lingual  but  also  tri-lingual  just 
as  the  modern  Palestinians  are.  Syriac  was  a  dialect  of 
Aramaic  and  "the  first  language  into  which  the  New 
Testament  was  translated;  and  as  the  Greek  text  itself 
was  written  by  men  who  habitually  thought  in  Syriac, 
the  early  versions  in  this  tongue  have  a  closer  affinity 
with  the  original  text  than  those  of  any  other  can 
possibly  have,  not  excepting  the  Old  Latin"  (Agnes 
Smith  Lewis).  While  this  statement  seems  to  affirm  a 
too  close  kinship  between  the  Syriac  written  at  Antioch 
and  Edessa  and  the  Aramaic  spoken  by  Matthew  and 
Paul,  yet  it  vividly  suggests  the  value  of  this  ancient 
version.  Dr.  Lewis  points  out  that  various  Ara- 
maic phrases  embodied  in  the  Greek  text,  such  as  "Ep- 
phatha,"  "Talitha  cumi,"  and  the  last  despairing  cry 
of  our  Lord  on  the  cross,  "Eloi,  Eloi,  lama  sabach- 
thani,"  are  not  translated  in  the  Old  Syriac  version, 
*'for  the  very  good  reason  that  they  are  part  of  the 
text  itself."  ^' 

At  the  present  time  over  forty  manuscripts  repre- 
senting forty  different  Syriac  New  Testaments  of  the 
fifth  or  sixth  century  are  known  to  exist.  These  manu- 
scripts come  from  widely  separated  districts,  Syria, 
Sinai,  Mesopotamia,  and  Armenia.  Up  to  within  the 
last  fifty  years   scholars  have  been  wholly  dependent 

""See  especially  The  Words  of  Jesus,  G.  H.  Dalman  (1902)  ;  and  The 
Messiah  of  the  Gospels,  C.  A.  Briggs  (1894). 

"  The  Four  Gospels,  translated  from  the  Sinaitic  Palimpsest,  p.  xv. 


176    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

upon  the  Peshito,  which  was  a  Syriac  text  of  the  com- 
mon type  and  has  been  known  to  European  scholars 
since  1552;^*  but  in  1842  Cureton  discovered  another 
type  of  text  in  a  fifth  century  MS.  (pubhshed  1852), 
and  later  several  other  types  were  found,  the  last  not- 
able discovery  being  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  repre- 
senting the  "Philoxenian"  text,  written  by  Polycorpus 
(a.d.  508),  and  published  in  1897  by  Dr.  John  Gwynn. 
It  is  now  known,  especially  through  the  researches  of 
Dr.  F.  C.  Burkitt,  that  the  Peshito  is  not  "the  queen" 
of  all  Syriac  versions,  as  had  always  been  supposed, 
but  is  rather  a  late  type  appearing  first  in  a.d.  411  to 
take  the  place  of  older  versions,  the  most  important  of 
which  is  represented  by  Tatian's  Diatessaron  ("Har- 
mony"), to  be  discust  later,  and  by  the  Sinai  gospels 
discovered  on  Mt.  Sinai  by  Mrs.  Lewis*  in  1892  and 
edited  by  Professor  Bensly,  etc.,  in  1894.^^  There  is 
such  romantic  interest  connected  with  the  discovery  of 
the  Sinai  gospels  that  we  tell  the  story  in  detail. 

(l)    NEWLY  DISCOVERED  SYRIAC  NEW  TESTAMENT  FROM 
THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.   CATHERINE 

It  is  one  of  the  divinely  foreordained  synchronisms 
of  history  that  the  mountain  which  gave  to  the  Israelites 
and,  therefore,  to  all  modern  nations  the  "law,"  should 
in  these  last  times  have  given  to  the  world  the  gospel. 
When  St.   Sylvia  journeyed  to  Mt.   Sinai  during  the 

°-  The  later  copies  of  the  Peshito  MSS.  number  125  of  Gospels,  58  of 
Acts  and  Catholic  Epistles,  267  of  Pauline  Epistles. 

*°  See  especially  Burkitt,  Evangelion  da  Mepharreshe,  2  vols.  (1904)  ; 
Studia  Sinaitica,  No.  VI.;  Text  and  Studies,  VII.,  2;  Journal  of  Theol. 
Studies,  II,  174-185;  The  Four  Gospels  in  Syriac  by  R.  L.  Bensly,  etc., 
1894;  Palestinian  Syriac  Lectionary  by  Lewis  and  Gibson,  1899.  A.  Min- 
gana  believes  the  Peshito  translation  to  have  been  made  by  Christian  Jews 
in  Mesopotamia  (Jemush  Quar.  Rev.,  January,  1916). 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     177 

reign  of  Theodosius  between  a.d.  385  and  388,  she 
speaks  of  the  "httle  church"  which,  tho  so  small,  "has 
of  itself  great  grace."  When  this  woman  traveler 
visited  the  monastery,  over  1,500  years  before  Mrs. 
Lewis  and  Mrs.  Gibson  made  their  memorable  visit,  it 
was  less  than  three  centuries  since  John  the  Apostle 
died  and  she  was  nearer  to  the  beloved  disciple  than 
we  are  to  Henry  VIII.  or  Luther  or  Shakespeare.  The 
manuscripts  of  the  gospels  then  on  Mt.  Sinai  may  have 
been  translated  from  the  originals. 

It  was  on  Mt.  Sinai  in  February,  1892,  that  Mrs. 
Agnes  Smith  Lewis  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Margaret 
Gibson,  made  their  sensational  discovery.  Both  of 
these  twin  sisters  could  speak  modern  Greek  with 
fluenc}'-,  and  Mrs.  Lewis,  who  had  previously  studied 
Arabic  and  Hebrew,  made  special  preparation  for  this 
trip  by  studying  Syriac,  and  became  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  the  oldest  Syriac  manuscripts  at  Cam- 
bridge, thus  being  providentially  prepared  for  the  dis- 
covery which  was  made  possible  only  by  this  recent 
study.  Having  reached  Cairo  in  January,  1892,  they 
won  the  good  will  of  the  Greek  archbishop  of  Mt.  Sinai, 
who  gave  them  permission  to  examine  the  Sinaitic 
library,  together  with  his  blessing — even  promising 
them  immunity  from  the  Khamseen  winds!  We  can 
not  describe  their  journey  across  the  desert  and  their 
first  sight  of  the  Mount  of  God  w4iich,  Dean  Stanley 
has  well  said,  "rises  like  a  huge  altar,  .  .  .  visible 
against  the  sky  in  lonely  grandeur  from  end  to  end  of 
the  whole  plain."  At  length  they  came  in  sight  of  the 
massive  walls  of  the  stately  convent  of  St.  Catherine. 
Undoubtedly  many  unknown  manuscripts  in  Greek, 
Slavonic,  Syriac,  Arabic,  and  Iberian  lie  hidden  behind 


178     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

those  walls — do  they  contain  any  treasure  for  these  two 
adventurous  Christian  women?  The  kindness  of  the 
librarian,  who  can  be  forgotten  by  no  one  of  us  who 
have  ever  visited  this  ancient  sanctuary,  opened  every- 
thing in  the  convent  to  their  inspection,  and  on  February 
8,  1892,  they  began  their  work,  examining,  copying,  and 
photographing  such  works  as  appeared  to  them  espe- 
cially valuable. 

The  most  ancient  of  these  manuscripts  were  kept  in 
dark  closets,  and  the  damp  leaves,  which  "had  evidently 
been  unturned  for  centuries,"  could  often  be  separated 
only  by  manipulation  with  the  fingers  or  by  the  steam 
of  the  kettle.  One  day  in  this  month  of  February,  as 
they  were  searching  through  the  rare,  old,  unbound 
parchments  which  had  probably  not  even  been  looked 
at  for  centuries,  they  came  across  a  Syriac  palimpsest  of 
358  pages  whose  leaves  were  glued  together  by  time 
and  so  old  that  "the  least  force  used  to  separate  them 
made  them  crumble."  The  overwriting  in  this  case 
bore  the  date  a.d.  778,  and  proved  to  be  a  very  enter- 
taining account  of  the  lives  of  female  saints.  The  pre- 
face to  this  read: 

"By  the  strength  of  our  Lord  Jesus  the  Christ  (the  Son)  of 
the  Living  God,  I  begin,  I  the  sinner,  John  the  Recluse  of  Beth- 
Mari  Kaddisha,  to  write  select  narratives  about  the  holy  women, 
first  the  writings  about  the  blessed  lady  Thecla,  disciple  of  Paul 
the  blessed  apostle.    Brethren,  pray  for  me." 

Later  the  author  treats  of  the  "Blessed  Eugenia" 
and  of  Philip  her  father,  of  Pelagia  the  harlot  of 
Antioch,  of  the  blessed  Onesimus,  of  Theodosia  the 
virgin,  of  Theodota  the  harlot,  etc.,  ending:  "Let  every 
one  who  reads   .    .    .   pray  for  the  sinner  who  wrote  it." 

The  under  and  more  ancient  writing  was  greatly 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     179 

blurred,  some  of  the  words  being  wholly  obliterated, 
yet  Mrs.  Lewis  detected  the  words  "Evangelion," 
"Mathi,"  "Luca,"  and  jumped  to  the  correct  conclusion 
that  this  older  writing  must  be  an  ancient  Syriac  text 
of  the  four  gospels.  They  photographed  this  work 
entirely,  and  left  the  convent  on  the  eighth  of  March. 
Having  reached  home,  they  developed  their  thousand 
photographs  and  showed  them  to  various  scholars,  but 
without  finding  any  one  who  could  make  out  the  blurred 
writing  or  saw  that  it  was  of  any  special  importance 
until  Mr.  F.  C.  Burkitt,  a  young  scholar  of  Cambridge, 
took  the  photographs  and  showed  them  to  Prof. 
R.  L.  Bensly,  who  was  just  finishing  a  new  edition  of 
the  oldest  Syriac  version  of  the  four  gospels  (the  Cure- 
ton).  He  recognized  at  once  that  this  was  another  copy 
much  like  the  Cureton,  but  very  much  more  complete 
and  probably  older.  Almost  immediately  it  was 
arranged  that  Professor  Bensly,  Mr.  Burkitt,  and  Prof. 
J.  Rendel  Harris  should  accompany  the  discoverers  back 
to  Sinai  where  they  would  accurately  transcribe  the 
manuscript  word  for  word.  Arriving  at  the  convent 
February  8,  1893,  they  found  to  their  great  delight  that 
the  experienced  experts  could  easily  trace  the  words  in 
the  underwriting,  and  after  forty  days  of  steady  labor 
they  were  able  to  return  to  England  bearing  with  them 
an  almost  complete  copy  of  this  precious  document.  The 
copy  was  completed  in  1895. 

We  have  given  long  space  to  a  description  of  this 
discovery  because  of  its  picturesque  interest  and  its 
great  and  generally  unappreciated  value.  Its  import- 
ance will  be  recognized  as  soon  as  one  remembers  that 
scholars  of  all  schools  believe  that  the  Greek  Testament 
was  translated  into  Syriac — a  branch  of  the  language 


i8o    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

used  by  the  Jews  of  Palestine  at  the  time  of  our  Lord — 
at  least  as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  second  century  of 
the  Christian  era,  and  that  some  of  the  very  greatest 
scholars,  like  Merx,  of  Heidelberg,  and  Hjelt,  of  Hel- 
singfors,  as  well  as  Dr.  Lewis,  believe  that  this  newly 
discovered  text  is  a  copy  of  that  primitive  Syriac  ver- 
sion which  was  in  use  by  the  Church  in  Palestine  not 
later  than  a.d.  150 — as  near  to  the  crucifixion  as  we 
are  to  the  Revolutionary  War.  These  Syriac  gospels 
which  must  have  been  written  in  Antioch  (Lewis) 
within  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  the  death  of  St.  John, 
being  the  earliest  translation  of  the  four  gospels  into 
any  language,  were  a  translation  of  the  earlier  Greek 
gospels,  proving  that  those  four  gospels,  in  almost  the 
exact  form  in  which  we  now  have  them,  were  then  the 
accepted  standards  of  the  Church.  Dr.  Lewis  points  out 
forcibly  that  this  Antioch  text  is  older  than  Tatian  and 
holds  very  nearly  the  same  relation  to  the  Greek  of 
the  gospels  as  the  Septuagint  does  to  the  Hebrew  of 
the  Old  Testament.^"  The  special  thing  that  makes  this 
Syriac  text  so  valuable  is  not  the  fact  that  it  proves  the 
existence  of  these  Greek  gospels  within  fifty  years  of 
the  apostolic  age — no  intelligent  person  denies  that 
now — but  because  it  gives  the  version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment used  in  Palestine  at  that  early  age,  being  writ- 
ten in  the  Eastern  branch  of  the  very  language  which 
our  Lord  and  the  apostles  spoke. 

This  Syriac  text  gives  us  the  real  Aramaic  forms  of 
names  rather  than  those  which  have  been  transferred 
into  our  translation  from  the  original  Greek  text.  Es- 
pecially is  this  noticeable  in  proper  names ;  e.g.,  we  read 
Halfai  for  Alphseus,  Juda  Scariota  for  Judas  Iscariot, 

'"  The  Old  Syriac  Gospels,  1910,  pp.  vi.,  xiii. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     i8i 

Cepha  for  Peter,  Raniatlia  for  Aramathea,  Beni-Rogschi 
for  Boanerges,  Hannan  for  Annas,  Ain  Nun  (i.e.,  the 
"fish  spring'')  for  Nain,  Shiloah  for  Siloam,  Beth  Zaita 
(i.e.,  "mount  of  the  house  of  oHves")  for  Mt.  OHvet, 
etc.  The  fact  is  that  these  Syriac  names,  in  most  cases, 
probably  represent  the  local  pronunciation  better  than 
the  Greek,  which  was  itself  a  translation  or  modified 
transcription  of  these  native  names.  ,  Some  plays  on 
language  found  here  may  represent  the  original  words 
of  Jesus;  e.g.,  John  8:  34,  "He  who  doeth  sin  is  the 
slave  of  sin."  Other  changes  which  may  possibly  be 
due  to  this  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  language 
spoken  by  Jesus  are:  "Blessed  .  .  .  who  hunger  and 
thirst  for  justice";  "We  have  seen  his  star  from  the 
East";  "My  yoke  is  gentle,  my  burden  is  small";  "Put 
these  sayings  in  your  ears";  "There  are  not  two  or 
three  gathered  together  in  my  name  and  I  not  with 
them";  "You  hold  the  key  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
before  men;  for  you  neither  enter  in  yourselves,  nor 
those  that  are  coming  do  you  suffer  to  enter" ;  "This  is 
my  blood,  the  New  Testament" ;  "I  do  that  which  I  have 
seen  of  my  Father";  "Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled. 
Believe  in  God,  and  in  me  ye  are  believing" ;  They  mur- 
mured against  her  "in  their  teeth";  "He  rolled  up  the 
book";  "Thou  art  not  fifty  years  old  and  hath  Abraham 
seen  thee?";  "Now  we  know  that  thou  knowest  all 
things  and  needest  not  that  thou  shouldst  ask  any 
man."  A  discrepancy  is  removed  by  having  John 
18:  13  followed  by  verse  24;  and  by  omitting  "more 
than  these"  and  "Thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee"  (John 
21:  15-17),  and  "Father  forgive  them"  (Luke  22,:  34')- 
Judas,  not  Iscariot,  is  called  in  this  version  Judas 
Thomas;  but  the  most  striking  change  in  names   is 


i82     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

found  in  Pilate's  question:  ''Which  will  ye  that  I  re- 
lease unto  you,  Jesus  Bar  Abba  or  Jesus  that  is  called 
Christ?" — a  reading  which  makes  Pilate  say,  ''Which 
Jesus  will  you  have,  Jesus  the  son  of  Abba  (i.e.,  the 
malefactor)  or  Jesus  the  king?"  This  may  really  repre- 
sent an  original  reading;  yet  if  so  I  can  hardly  think  it 
would  have  been  omitted  without  cause  from  our  other 
manuscripts  and  versions,  and  therefore  it  seems  rather 
to  be  a  sign  that  this  text,  old  as  it  is,  is  not  as  old  or  pure 
as  that  of  the  great  Greek  manuscripts  from  which  our 
English  translation  was  made.  Indeed,  there  are  many 
indications  amounting  to  proof  that  the  Syriac  reading 
is  a  later  explanation  or  paraphrase  of  the  Greek  text. 
When  the  Greek  text  says  "good"  fish,  the  Syriac  says 
"very  good";  when  the  Greek  says  "sick,"  the  Syriac 
says  "very  sick";  when  the  Greek  says  "Not  I,  Lord," 
the  Syriac  says  "Not  I  surely,  Lord";  when  the  Greek 
says  "two  mites  which  make  a  farthing,"  the  Syriac  says 
"two  mites  which  make  two  farthings,  which  make  an 
eighth";  when  the  Greek  says  that  the  woman  "wet" 
his  feet  with  her  tears,  the  Syriac  says  "bathed" ;  when 
the  Greek  says,  "Thou  hast  nothing  to  draw  with,"  the 
Syriac  says  "not  even  a  pitcher";  when  the  Greek  has 
simply  "Master,"  the  Syriac  almost  always  has  "Our 
Master."  On  the  other  hand,  Lazarus  is  called  a  "poor 
man,"  not  a  "beggar,"  and  "son"  is  omitted  in  Abra- 
ham's reply  (Luke  16:25);  in  Luke  17:  10  we  read 
"servants"  instead  of  "unprofitable  servants,"  and  in 
Luke  19:22  "fruitless"  not  "wicked"  servant;  and  in 
John  3:13  the  Son  of  Man,  not  "in"  but  "from" 
heaven. 

Certain  other  interesting  readings  are  "If  (two  of 
you)  shall  agree  upon  earth  about  everything";  Anna 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     183 

was  "seven  days  with  a  husband  after  her  virginity"; 
Joseph  went  to  Bethlehem  with  his  ''wife"  (Luke  2:5); 
"And  all  the  people  and  the  publicans  that  heard  justi- 
fied themselves  to  God"  (Luke  7:29);  "Thou  shalt 
have  glory";  "Love  your  enemies  .  .  .  and  do 
not  cease  hope  of  men" ;  "The  disciple  is  not  perfect  as 
his  master  in  teaching";  "The  Pharisees  derided  him 
because  they  loved  silver";  "Rebuke  the  disciples  that 
they  shout  not" ;  "They  that  have  authority  and  do  good 
are  called  benefactors";  "Woe  to  us,  what  hath  be- 
fallen us !  woe  to  us  for  our  sins" ;  "That  which  is  born 
of  the  spirit  is  spirit,  because  God  is  a  living  Spirit"; 
"I  was  blind  and  because  of  him,  lo!  I  see";  "I  am 
the  vine  of  truth";  "Peter  warmed  himself,  for  it  was 
freezing";  "Peter  cast  himself  into  the  lake  and  was 
swimming";  "Feed  my  lambs,  feed  my  sheep,  feed  my 
flock."  It  is  plain  from  this  that,  altho  the  Syriac  form 
is  beautiful,  it  can  hardly  be  the  primitive  text,  for  in 
that  case  there  could  be  no  explanation  of  the  change 
into  the  present  text.  On  the  other  hand,  in  many  cases 
certain  variations  in  the  Syriac  seem  to  make  it  certain 
that  this  was  derived  from  our  Greek  text;  e.g.,  Luke 
4 :  29,  where  the  people  of  Nazareth  took  Jesus  to  the 
brow  of  the  hill  that  they  might  "throw  him  down 
headlong,"  the  Syriac  text  has  so  that  they  might  "hang 
him,"  which  is  plainly  a  misreading  of  the  Greek  word. 
So  in  John  11:  31,  where  the  Greek  says  Mary  "rose 
up  quickly,"  the  Syriac  says  she  was  "amazed,"  which 
is  almost  certainly  a  misreading,  as  the  two  Greek 
words  are  very  nearly  alike.  It  also  seems  to  me  prob- 
able that  the  curious  reading,  "and  seven  days  only  was 
she  with  a  husband"  (Luke  2:36),  may  be  due  to  a 
scribe's  blunder,  who  perhaps  mistook  etog  "year"  for 


i84     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ETi  "yet"  and  guesses  at  the  meaning  "seven    (days) 
only." '' 

Having  now  seen  that  old  as  this  text  is,  it  is  not  as 
pure  or  old  as  the  Greek  text,  we  are  ready  to  look 
steadily  and  intelligently  at  what  is  supposed  to  be  a 
very  unorthodox  reading:  "Joseph  to  whom  was  be- 
trothed Mary  the  Virgin  begat  Jesus  who  is  called  the 
Christ."  "And  she  bore  to  him  a  son,  and  he  called 
his  name  Jesus"  (Matt,  i:  i6).  In  considering  this 
it  must  be  remembered  that  our  Lord  was  legally  and 
socially  the  son  of  Joseph,  and  that  this  fact  is  indeed 
the  only  logical  ground  for  the  incorporation  of  Joseph's 
genealogy  in  the  evangelist's  narrative.  The  editor  of 
this  text  also  points  out  that  the  word  "begat"  is  used 
here  in  a  purely  conventional  sense,  for  in  the  eighth 
verse  we  have  it  stated  that  Joram  begat  his  own  great 
grandson,  and  in  the  twelfth  verse  the  childless  Jech- 
oniah  is  said  to  have  "begat"  Shealtiel.  The  Christian 
system  does  not  hang  upon  the  miraculous  birth  of 
Jesus,  altho  certain  metaphysical  and  theological  con- 
clusions may  seem  to  require  it;  but  it  must  be  added, 
nevertheless,  in  all  fairness,  that  there  is  even  in  this  new 
Syriac  text  the  usual  distinct  statement  that  the  birth  of 
Jesus  was  supernatural  (Matt,  i:  18-20).  These  Syriac 
gospels  are  not  rivals  of  our  Greek  texts  any  more  than 
a  very  early  French  translation  of  Shakespeare  would 
be  a  rival  of  the  English  text  of  Shakespeare,  but  they 
do  ofifer  a  new  proof  of  the  remarkable  integrity  of  our 
Greek  text.    These  Syriac  translations,  dating  back  al- 

''  See  especially  The  Four  Gospels  Transcribed  from  the  Sinaitic  Pa- 
limpsest, Agnes  Smith  Lewis,  1894;  The  Four  Gospels  in  Syriac,  by  R.  L. 
Bensly,  J.  Rendel  Harris,  F.  Crawford  Burkitt.  with  an  Introduction  by 
Agnes  Smith  Lewis.  1894;  Some  Pages  of  the  Four  Gospels  Retranscrihed 
from  the  Sinaitic  Palimpsest,  1896;  and  The  Old  Syriac  Gospels,  1910, 
by  Agnes  Smith  Lewis,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     185 

most  if  not  quite  to  apostolic  times,  are  translations  of 
our  four  gospels,  and  contain  not  a  single  extract  from 
the  gospel  of  Peter  or  any  other  private  memorandum 
of  events.  Even  the  mistakes  of  this  text,  as  we  have 
seen,  prove  the  existence  of  the  earlier  authoritative 
Greek  texts.  In  this  Syriac  version,  Mt.  Sinai  has 
given  us  a  new  proof  of  the  age  and  integrity  of  the 
Greek  originals. 

Dr.  Agnes  Smith  Lewis  has  made  five  trips  to  Mt. 
Sinai  since  the  discovery  mentioned  above,  and  has 
made  several  other  "finds"  of  especial  interest.  Among 
these  we  should  probably  give  first  place  to  the  frag- 
ments of  a  beautiful  sixth  century  Palestine  (Syriac) 
text  of  the  four  gospels  and  Pauline  epistles  obtained  on 
her  sixth  visit  in  1915.^'^  This  discovery  consisted  of 
eighty-nine  leaves  of  a  palimpsest,  the  upper  script 
mostly  dating  from  the  ninth  century;  but  part  of  the 
Syriac  text,  according  to  Mr.  G.  Margoliouth,  dates 
from  the  sixth  century.  The  Greek  underwriting, 
according  to  Noldeke,  represents  a  Palestine  Syriac 
version  originating  in^  the  fourth  century  (ZDMG, 
XII,  525),  tho  Dr.  Burkitt  would  date  it  two  centuries 
later  (Journal  of  Theological  Studies,  II,  183).  This 
Syriac  text,  according  to  the  learned  editor,  was  not  a 
lectionary,  but  a  translation  from  the  Greek  New  Testa- 
ment, and  contains:  Matt.,  chaps.  24,  25,  27;  Acts, 
chaps.   19,  20,  24,  27;  Romans,  chaps.  4,  5,  7,  9,   lo; 

1  Cor.,  chaps.  3,  4,   13-16,  and  scattered  portions  of 

2  Corinthians,  Galatians,  Colossians,  Thessalonians, 
2  Peter  and  i  John.^^"  One  of  the  most  interesting  of 
Dr.  Lewis's  recent  discoveries  is  that  of  a  "Harmony 
of   the    Gospels,"    containing   Matt.    5:30-37;    6:1-2; 

'"  See  Horce  Seviitka,  No.  VIII.,  Codex  CUmaci  Rescriptus,  1906. 

*'•'  The  writer  has  not  been  able  as  yet  to  get  access  to  this  Greek  text. 


i86     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

8:8-17,  20,  21;  9:7-13,  36;  10:5;  John  12:1-3, 
6,  9,  14,  15-18;  20:  19,  20,  25,  28-31;  21:  I,  2.''"  This 
"Harmony"  is  now  in  Dr.  C.  R.  Gregory's  care  in  Ber- 
lin for  examination,  and  the  writer,  because  of  the  war, 
has  not  been  able  to  learn  anything  further  concerning 
this  text  either  from  Dr.  Lewis  or  Dr.  Gregory. 

3.  Coptic  New  Testaments 

In  1883,  nine  thousand  leaves  of  Coptic  manuscripts 
were  discovered  in  the  ruins  of  the  White  Monastery  be- 
tween Assiut  and  Thebes,  250  miles  south  of  Cairo. 
Among  these  leaves  were  found  some  of  the  oldest  and 
most  valuable  Coptic  Bibles  ever  seen.  The  first  Coptic 
manuscript  of  any  considerable  part  of  the  Bible  that 
ever  reached  the  British  Museum  was  in  1896,  but  by 
1905  the  Museum  possest  fifty-nine  fragments  of  Coptic 
Old  Testaments  and  eighty-three  pieces  of  eighty-three 
dififerent  Coptic  New  Testaments,  and  it  has  been  gather- 
ing many  other  such  manuscripts  ever  since.^^*^ 

There  are  at  least  five  or  six  Coptic  dialects  now 
known  to  scholars,  but  they  fall  into  three  general 
divisions:  the  Sahidic,  which  was  the  dialect  of  Upper 
Egypt;  the  Bohairic,  the  dialect  of  Lower  Egypt; 
and  Middle  Egyptian,  the  dialect  of  Akhmim  and 
the  Fayum.  Of  these  the  Bohairic  is  the  most  literary 
and  artificial,  being  still  used  in  the  ritual  of  the  Coptic 
church.  All  of  these  various  dialects  are  well  represen- 
ted in  late  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament;  but  for- 

*"'  See  Hor<^  Semiticoe  Climaci  5. 

^'^  Catalog  of  Coptic  ]\ISS.  hi  the  British  Museum,  1905,  and  for  a 
further  list  of  extant  Coptic  Biblical  texts  see  especially  Hyvernat,  Catholic 
Encyclopedia,  Index  Vol.,  articles,  "Coptic  Literature"  and  "Versions  of 
Bible,  Coptic."  Revue  Biblique,  1896-7,  and  Mnscon  XIII.,  275-362;  XV., 
49;  Chabot  in  Journal  des  Savants,  X.,  174j^.,  and  Schleifer,  in  Revue  Cri- 
*tique  XLIX. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     187 

tunately  the  Sahidic,  which  was  probably  the  earhest  and 
most  important  in  Scripture  translation,  is  represented  in 
a  great  number  of  New  Testament  MSS.,  many  of  which 
go  back  to  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  In  1904  a 
good  edition  of  many  fragments,  with  forty  full-page 
collotype  specimens,  was  issued  at  Rome,  by  P.  J. 
Balestri,  O.S.A.,  and  in  191 1  an  almost  exhaustive  edi- 
tion of  all  these  Sahidic  texts  was  published  by  Oxford 
University.  Altho  this  latter  work  did  not  include  some 
valuable  material  from  the  Rainer  collection,  later  pub- 
lished by  Wessely,^^  it  was  an  enormous  work  in  which 
751  MSS.,  mostly  dating  from  the  fourth  to  the  eighth 
century,  were  collated  with  the  Greek,  Old  Syriac,  Old 
Latin,  etc.,  and  all  important  variants  noted. 

Of  these  fragments  of  751  Coptic  New  Testaments 
only  one  "appears  to  have  suffered  any  systematic  cor- 
rection," even  the  MSS.  as  late  as  the  tenth  or  twelfth 
century  showing  very  few  variants.^^  All  the  frag- 
ments omit  the  story  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery 
(John  7:  53 — 8:  11),  as  do  all  the  oldest  Greek  texts. 
While  the  texts  in  general  showed  a  Western  influence 
they  were,  in  fact,  "neutral"  in  tendency,  thus  indicating 
their  translation  from  very  early  Greek  originals.  The 
distinguished  author  recognizes  that  the  history  of  the 
Egyptian  Church  begins  with  the  accession  of  Deme- 
trius to  the  Patriarchate  in  a.d.  188,  and  expresses  his 
conviction  that  this  Coptic  version  arose  in  Egypt  as 
early  as  the  second  century,  probably  about  a.d.  150."* 

^  Studien  cttr  Pal'dographie  und  Papyruskunde,  IX.-XII. 

'^  Coptic  Versions  of  the  New  Test,  in  the  Southern  Dialect,  3  vols., 
Oxford,  1911,  Vol.  I.,  p.  374. 

^  Ibid.,  pp.  398,  399 ;  a  second  century  date  is  accepted  also  by  Hyver- 
nat,  Revue  Biblique,  1897,  pp.  67 ff.;  and  Kenyon,  Textual  Criticism  of  the 
New  Testament;  all  of  these  vs.  Hastings,  Diet,  of  Bible;  Ency. 
Brit.,  and  Ency.  Bib.  Leipoldt  dates  the  completion  of  the  version  a.d. 
350,  Gesch.  der  christlichen  Literatur,  VII.,  2,  Leipzig,  1907,  pp.  139./f. 


i88     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

It  is  evident  that  as  a  confirmation  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  present  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testament,  these 
most  recent  researches  into  a  language  which  no  text- 
critic  of  the  last  century  was  able  to  explore,  has  proved 
very  satisfactory.  While  the  Bohairic  version  has  not 
previously  been  counted  so  important  as  the  Sahidic, 
yet  the  multitude  of  new  discoveries  has  permitted  prac- 
tically the  entire  new  Testament  to  be  reproduced  in 
this  dialect.^^*  A  new  manuscript  of  great  value  has  just 
been  discovered  containing  a  large  part  of  the  Four  Gos- 
pels. It  is  much  older  than  any  previously  known  gospel 
manuscript  in  this  dialect,  the  earliest  previously  known 
being  the  Cur  son  Catena,  dated  a.d.  889.  The  newly 
found  Bohairic  gospels,  thought  by  some  to  represent  an 
older  text  than  even  the  Vatican  manuscript,  contains 
Matthew  and  John  and  a  good  part  of  Mark;  and,  in 
Sahidic,  all  of  St.  Paul's  epistles  and  those  of  Peter 
and  John.  This  discovery  is  from  all  points  of  view, 
"Biblical,  critical,  paleographic  and  artistic  ...  by  far 
the  most  important  event  of  recent  years."^^  Hoskier 
even  believes  that  the  writer  of  the  Sinaitic  MSS.  had 
before  him  several  ancient  texts,  of  which  the  Bohairic 
was  one.  This  shows,  at  least,  the  new  and  great  im- 
portance of  this  newly  found  version. 

The  Fayumic  version  is  not  represented  by  any 
such  enormous  collections  of  ancient  fragments;  yet  a 
sufficient  number  of  these  have  been  obtained  to  show 
that  the  dialect  of  this  district  had  been  used  as  a 
medium  for  New  Testament  translation  very  early  in 

^"  The  Coptic  Version  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  Northern  Dialect, 
by  George  Horner,  4  vols.,  1898-1905. 

^^  Journal  des  Savants,  X.,  179. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     189 

the  Christian  history.^"  The  first  text  was  brought  to 
the  British  Museum  in  1879,  and  dates  probably  from 
the  sixth  century.  This  version  is  of  special  impor- 
tance because  our  earliest  Greek  fragments  were  found 
in  the  Fayum  (see  pp.  166-173).  The  study  of  the 
Akhmimic  dialect  of  the  New  Testament  has  been 
pushed  forward  greatly  during  the  last  fifteen  years. 
Among  the  discoveries,  high  rank  must  be  given  to  the 
entire  papyrus  book  containing  the  Proverbs  of  Solo- 
mon and  to  the  important  fragment  of  a  book  contain- 
ing a  portion  of  the  gospel  of  St.  John  in  Greek  and 
Akhmimic.  The  Greek  text  of  the  latter  we  have 
already  commented  upon  (p.  152).  The  Coptic  con- 
tains St.  John  10:  I — 12:20;  13:  I,  2,  II,  12;  James 
i:  13—5:20.'' 

The  famous  parchment  codex  of  the  twelve  lesser 
prophets  in  the  Rainer  collection  is  still  unfortunately 
unpublished  at  this  writing,  but  a  sufficient  number  of 
New  Testament  scraps  have  been  found  to  make 
this  dialect,  which  flourished  midway  between  the  Delta 
and  ancient  Thebes,  of  considerable  interest,  tho  not 
of  great  textual  value.'^ 

The  recent  discovery  of  a  very  ancient  copy  of  the 
book  of  Acts  and  book  of  Revelation  in  Sahidic,  the  text 
of  which  has  just  been  published  to  the  world  by  the 
British  Museum  (ed.  by  Dr.  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  1912), 
may  well  close  our  review  of  these  Coptic  New  Testa- 
ments.    This  codex  of  Acts,  which  was  discovered  in 

^  See  E.  Chassinat,  Bull,  de  I'Inst.  Franc,  d'arch.  au  Caxre  II. ;  Frag- 
menta  Bassurica,  I.-III. ;  especially  Wessely,  Sitzungsberichte  der  kais. 
Aked.  der  Wissensch.  in  Wien.  philos.  hist.  Klasse,  Vol.  158  and  Joseph 
David,  Revue  Biblique,  1910. 

'"Roesch,  BrucJistiicke  des  ersten  Clemens-Brief es,  Strasshurg,  1910. 

^  See  Lacau,  Bulletin  de  I'Inst.  frangaise  d'arch.  orient,  VIII.  (Cairo, 
1911). 


I90     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

1 90 1,  and  which  must  be  dated,  according  to  the  editor, 
not  later  than  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  marks 
a  distinct  advance  by  putting  in  our  hands  "the  oldest 
known  copy  of^any  translation  of  any  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  Greek  Bible."^^  This  translation  is*  in  fact, 
as  old  as  our  oldest  large  Greek  MSS.,  and  fortunately, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  mutilated  verses,  the  only 
portions  of  the  manuscript  absent  are  chapters  24:  17 — 
26:  31 ;  27:  7,  8,  9,  18,  19,  20,  28,  29.  It  is  well  written  in 
a  good  hand,  tlio  there  are  many  mistakes  in  spelling 
and  omissions  of  entire  lines,  due  either  to  the  careless- 
ness of  the  writer  or  "because  he  was  copying  from 
an  old  and  partly  obliterated  text."  He  evidently  did 
not  understand  always  what  he  was  writing,  as  he 
copied  "destruction"  for  "healing"  (Acts  2:6);  "thy 
disciples"  for  "thy  sins"  (22:  16),  etc.  In  a  few  pas- 
sages the  readings  differ  from  the  later  MSS.  of  the 
Sahidic  versions;  e.g.,  "God  of  our  fathers"  instead  of 
"God  of  Glory"  (Acts  7:2);  "the  voice  answered"  in- 
stead of  "the  voice  was  against  me"  (11:5).  Often 
the  readings  are  more  correct  than  those  of  the  later 
texts.  A  little  sermon  at  the  end  of  the  Acts  in  cursive 
script  written  about  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century 
contains  some  remarks  which  it  might  be  profitable  to 
repeat : 

''Why  do  ye  commit  sin  ?  Ye  add  sin  to  your  sin,  ye  make  to 
be  wroth  the  Lord  God  who  hath  created  you.  Love  not  the 
world  nor  the  things  which  are  in  the  world,  for  the  glory  of  the 
world  belongeth  to  the  devil  and  the  destruction  thereof  .  .  .  for 
many  times  the  devil  wisheth  to  prevent  the  sun  from  rising  on 
the  earth  ...  he  wisheth  to  swallow  up  men  .  .  .  for  this  reason 
God  hath  showed  compassion  on  us  in  sending  (  !)  his  Son  into 

"Wessely,  however,  dates  his  Sahidic  Acts   (ii-xxvi.)   to  cir.  a,d,  400 
(Museon  XV,  40). 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     191 

the  world  that  he  might  deliver  us.  .  .  .  Fasting  is  nothing  and 
God  did  not  ordain  it,  and  (those  who  practise  it)  [i.e.,  as  a  sav- 
ing ordinance]  make  themselves  strangers  to  the  covenant  of 
God.^'-^" 

There  are  a  few  very  interesting  readings : 

Acts  8:  10 — "This  is  the  great  power  of  God"  (or)  "This  man 
is  the  great  one  of  the  power  of  God." 

10:36 — "For  his  word  he  sent  it  to  the  children  of  Israel. 
He  preached  peace  by  Jesus  the  Christ.  This  is  the  Lord  of 
everyone." 

1 1 :  20 — "And  having  come  to  Antioch  they  spoke  with  the 
Greeks ;  they  preached  the  Lord  Jesus." 

16:  13 — "On  the  day  of  that  Sabbath  we  came  out  outside  the 
gate  on  the  river  to  a  place  wherein  we  might  pray." 

18 :  5 — "Paul  was  persevering  in  the  word ;  he  was  testifying 
to  the  Jews  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ." 

20:  28 — "Church  of  the  Lord  which  he  hath  acquired  through 
his  own  blood." 

21 :  16 — '"The  disciples  who  were  in  Csesarea  took  us  to  an 
old  disciple  a  Cyprian,  Mnason,  that  we  might  sojourn  with 
him." 

The  Codex  of  the  Apocalypse  pubHshed  with  the 
Acts  is  almost  equally  important,  and  the  various  read- 
ings equally  curious,  e.g.: 

Rev.  9 :  20 — "The  demons  of  gold  and  silver." 

II :  18 — "To  judge  the  living  and  the  dead." 

13 :  18 — "He  who  hath  understanding,  let  him  count  the  num- 
ber of  the  name  of  the  beast;  for  it  is  the  number  of  a  rjame;  it 
maketh  600,  6,  60." 

'°°  Dr.  A.  A.  Vaschalde,  of  the  Catholic  University  of  America,  calls  my 
attention  to  the  fact  that  this  translation  is  not  critically  exact.  "Sin" 
(fourth  word  from* end  of  first  line)  should  be  "sins";  "wisheth"  (fifth 
line)  should  be,  "wished";  "he  wisheth"  (sixth  line)  should  be  "wishing"; 
while  instead  of  "and  the  destruction  thereof"  (fourth  line)  we  should 
read  (following  "world"),  "and  its  dissoluteness";  while  the  passage  be- 
ginning, "Fasting  is  nothing"  may  be  omitted,  as  the  text  is  badly  mutilated 
here  and  Budge's  interpretation  somewhat  uncertain. 


192     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

17:  5 — "There  was  a  name  of  mystery  written  upon  her  fore- 
head." ^"^ 

It  should  be  noted  that  this  great  codex  was  not 
used  as  a  service  book,  but  was  the  property  of  some 
private  individual,  perhaps  a  monk.  It  had  been  used 
till  it  was  nearly  worn  out  and  the  back  of  it  had  to 
be  strengthened. 

This  discovery  brings  another  proof  that  the  Coptic 
version  must  hereafter  be  reckoned  with  as  one  of  the 
important  authorities  for  the  text  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

4.  Ancient  New  Testaments  in  Latin  and  Other 

Languages  *" 

The  Latin  versions  of  the  Scriptures  can  be  traced 
back  into  the  second  century,  altho,  naturally,  no 
second  century  copies  of  this  translation  now  exist. 
We  know,  however,  that  the  martyrs  at  Carthage  in  the 
year   a.d.    180,   had   in   their   case   of   Latin   rolls   the 

^"'  Dr.  Vaschalde  in  a  personal  letter  points  out  some  critical  corrections 
to  these  renderings  of  Dr.  Budge.  Acts  8 :  10,  the  second  rendering  "is  cer- 
tainly false,"  and  the  first  is  in  complete  harmony  with  the  Greek.  Acts 
10:36,  11:20,  20:28  agree  with  the  Greek.  Acts  16:13,  read  "on  the 
day  of  the  Sabbaths";  Act  18:5,  translate:  "Paul  was  persevering  in  the 
word,  testifying  to  the  Jews  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ."  Acts  21 :  16  should  be 
translated  "...  the  disciples,  who  were  in  Caesarea ;  they  took  us  to  an 
old  disciple,  etc."  Dr.  Vaschalde  points  out  that  none  of  the  readings  in 
Revelation,  (excepting  perhaps  11 :  18)  are  peculiar  to  this  codex,  the  same 
readings  being  found  in  Goussen's  or  Wessely's  texts.  That  is,  these  read- 
ings, while  they  may  be  peculiar  to  the  Sahidic  Version,  are  not  peculiar  to 
Budge's  Codex.  "It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Sahidic  version  is. 
as  a  rule,  not  as  literal  as  the  Bohairic." 

*°  Almost  all  of  these  new  discoveries  have  been  made  in  monasteries. 
The  Egyptian  papyri  have  yielded  comparatively  little  Latin  material,  altho 
Wessely  has  recently  given  fifty  examples  of  Roman  script  (three  from  the 
first  century  and  six  from  the  second),  and  has  described  in  a  fascinating 
way  the  peculiarities  of  the  early  Latin  script  at  the  time  when  Vergil  and 
Horace  were  writing.  One  of  the  most  interesting  secular  documents  is 
a  bundle  of  letters  dated  21-18  b.c.  by  Macedo,  a  citizen  of  the  Fayum 
(Aus  der  Welt  der  Papyri,  pp.  ASff.). 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     193 

''Epistle  of  Paul,  the  just  man.*'  Cyprian,  also,  in  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  f|uotes  the  Latin  text  of 
the  New  Testament  constantly.  By  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  so  many  different  translations  of  the 
Greek  text  had  already  appeared  that  the  Latin  MSS. 
exhibited  a  most  confusing  variety  of  text,  and  this 
lasted  till  Jerome's  version  (a.  d.  384-400)  supplemented 
all  others/^ 

Within  the  last  two  decades  the  Latin  versions  have 
advanced  to  a  place  of  primary  importance  in  determin- 
ing the  original  text  of  the  New  Testament.  It  has 
long  been  acknowledged  by  textual  critics  that  the  Vul- 
gate of  Jerome  represented  in  many  places  a  better  text 
than  our  Authorized  Aversion;  for  in  the  year  161 1  no 
scholar  was  able  to  consult  such  ancient  Greek  texts  as 
Jerome  used  in  the  fourth  century.  Jerome  attempted 
to  produce  a  critical  edition,  and  did  the  work  well  so 
far  as  the  gospels  were  concerned,  altho  not  so  well  in 
the  epistles.  There  now  exist  some  8,000  MSS.  follow- 
ing Jerome's  revision.  These  prove  that  Jerome's  trans- 
lation was  much  modified  by  later  revisers,  especially 
from  the  ninth  to  the  twelfth  centuries;  the  original 
Vulgate  being  quite  dififerent  from  the  authorized  edi- 
tion of  this  text,  put  out  by  Pope  Clement  VIII  in 
1592.  This  edition  was  declared  by  edict  to  be  superior 
to  the  Greek  originals  and  was  used  later  as  the  basis 
of  the  Douay  (Roman  Catholic)  New  Testament. 

The  oldest  manuscript  representing  Jerome's  ver- 
sion of  the  New  Testament  was  discovered  in  1907. 
It  was  bound  up  with  a  collection  of  shorthand  symbols 
(tenth  century)  and  a  number  of  short  prayers  (sev- 
enth  century) ;  but  it  dates   from   the   sixth   century, 

"F.  C.  Burkitt  in  Eiicy.  Biblica,  IV.,  5008-10. 


194     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

being  thus  the  oldest  large  Latin  Bible  text  now  in 
the  British  Museum.  It  is  a  vellum  leaf  which  was 
once  the  sixth  leaf  of  an  uncial  Latin  New  Testament, 
in  which  the  gospels  were  written  in  their  present 
order.  The  leaf  contains  Mark  i6:  15-20,  represent- 
ing in  general  the  Vulgate  text,  and  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  leaf  are  two  ecclesiastical  lections  of  the 
eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  containing  John  14:  7-14; 
Luke  24:  49-53.  There  are  a  few  curious  readings,  the 
most  interesting  being  Mark  16:  17,  where  "nehite 
apostoli"  is  added  to  the  regular  text,  thus  limiting 
rniraculous  signs  to  such  disciples  as  have  the  same 
kind  of  faith  as  had  the  apostles.^^ 

The  recent  study  of  Jerome's  translation  has  been 
valuable;  but  previous  to  Jerome  there  had  been  sev- 
eral other  translations  or  recensions  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment into  Latin,  and  in  recent  years  scholars  have  been 
able  for  the  first  time  to  get  back  with  considerable 
certainty  to  those  texts  which  antedate  the  original 
Vulgate.  Fragments  of  at  least  eighteen  manuscripts 
of  the  Old  Latin  gospels  still  exist,  five  of  which  are 
of  the  fourth  or  fifth  century.  The  advantage  of  this 
is  incalculable,  since  the  tendency  after  Jerome  was 
toward  an  unhealthy  uniformity  of  Latin  text.  The 
fine  faithfulness  of  the  early  Latin  copyists  makes  even 
short  quotations  or  broken  manuscripts  of  unusual 
value.  The  general  conclusion  of  an  examination  of 
all  the  evidence  gathered  from  these  hundreds  of  Latin 
New  Testaments  in  Africa  and  Europe,  and  from  the 
quotations  made  by  the  early  Fathers  of  the  Latin 
Church,    is   to   confirm    the   authority   of   our   present 

«  Described  in  Jour,  of  Theol  Studies,  XIIL,  369-371.  For  the  changes 
in  the  Vulgate  text  of  St.  Paul's  epistles,  see  Revue  Bihlique,  1915,  pp. 
358-392. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     195 

Greek  text,  which  we  have  ah-eady  seen  to  he  at  the 
basis  of  the  Coptic  and  Syriac  translations.  Such  is 
the  settled  conclusion  of  Biblical  science. 

A  young  English  scholar,  however,  ]\Ir.  E.  S. 
Buchanan,  has  recently  been  attempting  a  quixotic  at- 
tack upon  the  Greek  manuscripts,  affirming  that  they 
were  all  wilfully  changed  in  the  second  or  the  third  cen- 
tury and  that  the  Latin  manuscripts  are  far  more  trust- 
worthy. This  claim  would  not  be  worthy  of  attention 
here  were  it  not  that  a  few  reputable  American  maga- 
zines have  seemingly  sanctioned  this  theory,  supposing 
it  in  some  way  to  be  a  "defense  of  orthodoxy."  In- 
stead of  favoring  orthodoxy  it  leads  directly  to  out- 
and-out  textual  skepticism.  Fortunately,  it  is  diamet- 
rically opposed  to  all  legitimate  conclusions  from  the 
many  text  discoveries  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 
No  one  doubts  that  we  possess  twentyfold  more  Greek 
than  Latin  manuscripts  dating  from  the  early  cen- 
turies. Of  the  2,369  Latin  manuscripts  catalogued  by 
Gregory  less  than  half  a  dozen  date  as  early  as  the 
sixth  century.  No  one  doubts  that  the  Latin  manu- 
scripts were  derived  from  Greek  originals.  The  Latin 
manuscripts  from  which  Mr.  Buchanan  obtains  these 
unique  readings — which  he  believes  to  be  primitive — 
are  late  manuscripts  dating  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth 
century.*^  It  is  a  mere  speculative  decision  on  his 
part  that  these  new  readings  are  primitive,  and  in  most 
cases  his  decisions  are  opposed  by  other  textual 
scholars. 

Mr.  Buchanan's  basal  claim  is  that  the  copyists 
in  the  second  or  third  century  changed  the  original 

^  Mr.  Buchanan  dates  two  of  the  manuscripts  he  edits  early  in  the  fifth 

century,  but  those  from  which  he  obtains  his  most  sensational  variants 
(late  from  the  eighth  to  the  tenth  century. 


196     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

text  in  the  interests  of  the  "hierarchy"  against  the 
virgin  birth  and  the  deity  of  Jesus,  and  the  personaHty 
of  the  Holy  Spirit;  but  this  is  against  all  historical 
perspective.  The  Christian  theologians  of  that  era 
were  zealously  accepting  these  doctrines.  To  suppose 
that  anybody  could  have  introduced  at  that  era  changes 
against  the  cherished  beliefs  of  the  Church  and  had 
them  universally  accepted  is  simply  preposterous.  A 
church  of  heretics  and  fraudulent  deceivers  would  have 
to  take  the  place  of  the  Church  of  the  martyrs  in  order 
to  give  Mr.  Buchanan's  theory  an  a  priori  standing. 
But  even  if  the  possibility  of  changes  so  vital  as  these 
was  acknowledged,  it  would  yet  be  absolutely  incredible 
that  such  particular  changes  as  many  of  those  which 
he  mentions  could  be  primitive.  It  is  easy  to  see  how 
such  readings  could  arise  at  a  comparatively  late  era 
on  the  basis  of  the  present  Greek  text,  but  impossible 
to  explain  how  the  present  Greek  text  could  have  arisen 
from  such  an  original  text  as  Mr.  Buchanan's  theory 
presupposes.  It  is  .also  impossible  to  imagine  original 
readings  of  the  following  nature  dropping  absolutely 
out  of  sight  in  the  primitive  Church: 

"And  they  were  astonished  at  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
for  the  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus  was  powerful"  (Mark  4:  24). 
"Judge  not  your  brethren  and  ye  shall  not  be  judged"  (Luke 

6:37). 

"Holy  Father  which  art  in  heaven :  Give  us  to-day  for  bread 

the  Word  of  God  from  heaven"  (Luke  11  :  2,  3). 

"In  him  was  the  life  of  God,  which  is  the  light  of  men"  (John 

1:4). 

"No  man  can  come  unto  me  except  the  Father  which  sent  me 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  draw  him"  (John  6:44). 

"He  that  followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness  but  shall 
have  the  eternal  light  of  the  life  of  God"  (John  8:  12). 

"If  thou  art  God,  tell  us  plainly"  (John  10:  24). 


e 


«^  '   5?V_*^x, 


rv^ 


1?  - 


"*«««. 


K 


SICLF-COOKKK 


LOAI-  OF   TiRKAli 


\V.\LL-P.\INTIX(, 


'■""mn 


WMwMi  n 


SURGICAL  INSTRUMENTS  KAMI'S  AXL)  CAXDKLAUKA 

RELICS  FROM  THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  (1st  Century) 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     197 

"Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  that  will  I  do,  that  the 
Son  of  God  may  be  glorified"  (John  13 :  14). 

"And  the  word  which  ye  hear  is  not  man's,  but  the  Father's 
which  sent  me"  (John  14:  24). 

"These  things  have  been  written  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  Son  of  Man  and  Son  of  God,  and  have  life  eternal  in 
his  name"  (John  20:31).^^* 

One  might  hope  that  a  few  of  the  readings  in  these 
Latin  manuscripts  shall  prove  to  be  primitive,  such  as: 

"John  did  baptize  in  the  wilderness  and  preach  repentance  for 
the  remission  of  sins"  (Mark  1:4). 

"No  prophet  is  acceptable  in  David's  country"  (Luke  4:24). 

"Do  good  to  them  that  curse  you"  (Luke  6 :  28). 

"I  have  sinned  against  heaven  and  .  .  ,  am  not  worthy  to  be 
thy  servant"  (Luke  15:21). 

"Except  a  man  be  born  of  the  Spirit,  he  can  not  enter  the 
kingdom  of  God"  (John  3:5). 

But  while  the  above  texts  appeal  to  us  as  possibly 
defensible  primitive  readings,  according  to  the  proper 
canons  of  criticism,  yet  this  does  not  prove  that  they 
were  primitive.  It  is  only  by  an  exhaustive  examina- 
tion of  the  manuscript  testimony  that  such  matters 
can  be  decided.  It  is  perfectly  clear,  however,  accord- 
ing to  every  canon  of  criticism,  that  such  a  reading  as 
the  following  could  not  be  primitive: 

"I  say  unto  thee,  upon  this  rock  shall  be  built  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  his  disciples." — Matt.  16:  18. 

Mr.  Buchanan  finds  this  reading  in  a  Spanish  manu- 
script from  the  library  of  the  late  J.  P.  Morgan.  It 
is  a  very  handsome  manuscript  containing  no  richly 
colored  miniatures  and  was  copied  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, tho  it  dates  back  to  the  Presbyter  Beatus  who 
lived  in  the  eighth  century.     It  is  evident  that  Beatus 

"°  These  instances  have  all  been  taken  from  the  Irish  Codex  Harleianus, 
edited  by  A.  S.  Buchanan,  M..\.,  B.Sc,  1914. 


198     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

was  rather  a  remarkable  man,  for  his  comments  writ- 
ten in  the  text  are  noteworthy:  "Christians  are  called 
after  Christ;  therefore,  the  Lord  said,  'Upon  this  rock 
shall  be  built  by  the  Holy  Spirit  his  disciples,'  "  and 
"This  is  the  first  church  that  was  founded  at  the  first 
by  the  Spirit  upon  the  rock,  Christ";  but  to  imagine 
that  such  a  comment  represents  a  primitive  reading 
which  has  been  dropt  out  in  some  miraculous  or  fraudu- 
lent way  from  the  Greek  text  and  from  all  versions 
excepting  this  one  very  late  and  very  gorgeous  copy, 
is  to  allow  one's  credulity  to  take  the  place  of  reason.^* 
Text  critics  are  eager  to  welcome  any  new  reading 
with  a  fair  probability  of  truth  behind  it,  but  in  the 
interest  of  solid  learning  such  hasty  conclusions  as 
those  noticed  above  are  much  to  be  regretted.  What- 
ever may  be  the  outcome  of  the  contention  by  Merx, 
Hoskier,  Von  Soden  and  others  that  the  Western  text, 
including  also  the  old  Latin  Syriac,  and  Coptic  Versions, 
must  be  given  more  prominence  than  has  ordinarily  been 
given  it  by  text  critics,  no  such  argument  as  the 
above  can  seriously  assist  this  claim.  The  new  dis- 
coveries prove  that  the  Alexandrian  critics  did  not 
even  form  a  new  standard  text  of  Homer,  as  was  once 
supposed  certain — the  earliest  texts  being  "substan- 
tially identical"  with  the  very  late  texts;  and  every 
great  text  critic  now  believes  that  the  variations  of 
text,  either  in  the  classics  or  in  the  New  Testament, 
are  due,  not  chiefly  to  wilful  corruption,  but  to  ig- 
norance.^^ Ignorant  as  the  scribes  w^ere  who  wrote 
some  of  the   Greek  minuscules,   few  of   them  can  be 

**  Bibliotlieca  Sacra,  Oct.,  1915;  The  Early  Revisers  of  the  Gospel,  E.  S. 
Buchanan,  1915;  Search  for  the  Original  Words  of  the  Gospel,  Dec,  1914; 
Sacred  Latin  Texts,  Vols.  I.-IL,  V. 

*=  Cf.  F.  G.  Kenyon,  in  Proceedings  of  Brit.  Acad..  1903-4,  pp.  139-293. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     199 

compared  in  this  respect  with  the  Latin  scribes.  In  the 
Codex  Laiidianiis,  ^'church"  and  "elder"  are  each  spelled 
in  four  different  ways,  and  in  the  Codex  Corbeicnsis 
Paul  is  spelled  "paulus,"  "laulus,"  "paus,"  "populus."' 

While  we  have  thus  frankly  criticized  some  of  the 
sensational  conclusions  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  we  do  not 
fail  to  recognize  the  value  of  his  textual  work  and  of 
the  new  viewpoint  which  would  magnify  the  importance 
of  the  old  Latin  readings.  If,  further,  he  shall  be 
proved  right  in  his  belief  that  the  gospel  of  Mark  was 
written  originally  in  Latin,  this  will  give  to  the  study 
of  the  Latin  manuscripts,  especially  to  the  gospel  of 
]\Iark,  a  new  interest.  Mark  was  anciently  called  the 
"interpreter"  {i.e.,  "secretary"  or  "dragoman")  of 
Peter ;  and  if  this  gospel  were  written  in  Rome  it  would 
naturally  be  put  in  the  vernacular.  The  native  people 
were  undoubtedly  talking  Latin.  It  is  said  that  even 
Cicero  did  not  know  Greek  until  he  was  over  eighty 
years  of  age.  At  any  rate,  Alark  has  a  Latin  back- 
ground; and  as  there  are  forty  Latin  names  of  persons 
and  places  and  thirty  other  Latin  terms,  military, 
judicial,  and  domestic  found  in  the  New  Testament 
(Robertson),  all  Bible  students  may  well  be  interested 
in  every  new  discovery  or  new  theory  connected  with 
the  Latin  manuscripts.  If  Mark's  gospel  were  written 
originally  in  two  languages  (either  Greek  and  Aramaic 
or  Greek  and  Latin),  the  double  ending  of  the  sixteenth 
chapter  might  also  be  more  easily  explained.^^ 

A  considerable  number  of  other  Biblical  manuscripts 
have  recently  been  brought  to  light,  written  in  Arabic, 
Armenian,  Ethiopic,  and  other  languages,  but  these  have 

**  Cf.    Swete,    Gospel   according    to   St.   Mark,    pp.   xxiv.,    xlvii. ;    Sal- 
mon, Introduction  to  the  New  Testame)it,  p.  151. 


200    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

added  comparatively  little  to  our  knowledge  of  the  Bible 
text.  We  may  mention,  however,  a  rather  surprizing 
discovery  which  Dr.  J.  Rendel  Harris  (following 
Preuschen)  has  just  made  in  an  Armenian  version  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  He  believes  that  he  has  found 
there  the  name  of  the  author.  This  not  only  assists  to 
settle  the  old  controversy  concerning  the  correct  spell- 
ing of  Ltike's  name,  but  has  at  least  some  little  bear- 
ing on  certain  more  important  questions  concerning 
that  much  discust  work.  Scholarship  has  gradually 
come  to  see  that  the  "we"  sections  of  the  Acts  can 
not  be  detached  from  the  rest  of  the  book.  In  lan- 
guage, style,  atmosphere,  and  outlook  the  book  is  a 
unity.  Dr.  Harris  has  convincingly  shown  that  the 
Western  text  differed  from  the  ordinary  text  just  as 
widely  in  the  far  East  as  in  the  near  West  and  now, 
in  a  second  century  Armenian  commentary,  he  has 
found  this  unique  reading:  "But  [I],  Luke  (Aoiixiog), 
and  those  who  were  with  me,  went  on  board." 

5.  A  Very  Ancient  "Harmony  of  the  Gospels" 
Tatian,  who  was  an  eastern  Syrian  rhetorician  of 
Greek  education  born  about  a.d.  iio — some  six  or 
eight  years  after  the  traditional  date  of  St.  John's 
death, — was  an  independent  thinker.  Before  his  con- 
version to  Christianity  he  had  studied  all  the  learning 
of  the  Greeks  and  was  dissatisfied  with  it.  He  says: 
"While  I  was  giving  my  most  earnest  attention  to  the 
matter"  (the  discovery  of  truth),  "I  happened  to  meet 
with  certain  barbaric  writings  too  old  to  be  compared 
with  the  opinions  of  the  Greeks  and  too  divine  to  be 
compared  with  their  errors"  (i.e.,  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures).     "I  was  led  to  put  faith  in  these  by  the 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED     201 

unpretending  cast  of  the  language,  the  inartificial  char- 
acter of  the  writers,  the  foreknowledge  displayed  of 
future  events,  the  excellent  quality  of  the  precepts,  and 
the  declaration  of  the  government  of  the  universe  as 
centered  in  one  being."  *' 

At  Rome  he  met  Justin,  "the  martyr,"  and  was 
converted  to  Christianity.  Justin  was  a  great  man. 
He  had  been  a  pagan  philosopher,  but  had  met  with 
Christianity  and  it  had  conquered  him;  he  had  trav- 
eled all  over  the  civilized  world  and  personally  knew 
the  men  who  had  known  the  apostles.  Tatian  studied 
with  this  man  and  perhaps  saw  him,  with  six  other 
Christians,  beheaded  in  Rome  a.d.  166.  Thus  Tatian 
became  a  Christian  philosopher,  and  wrote  various 
philosophical  treatises  against  the  Greeks.  Philosophic 
discussion,  however,  is  not  always  a  good  thing  for 
every  man,  and  very  soon  Tatian  was  drawn  away 
from  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel.  He  was  led  in 
these  discussions  to  feel  so  keenly  the  difficulty  of 
acknowledging  Christ's  humanity  while  claiming  his 
divinity  that  he  finally  gave  up  the  doctrine  that  Christ 
was  human,  declaring  that  his  human  body  was  but 
an  appearance  and  that  only  his  divinity  was  real.  In 
connection  with  this  heresy  he  taught  also  that  the 
body  was  an  evil  thing  and  everything  was  evil  that 
gave  it  pleasure.  He  became,  therefore,  an  ascetic  of 
a  pronounced  type,  abstaining  from  all  luxurious  food 
and  abhorring  marriage.  He  also  followed  Marcion  in 
distinguishing  the  Demiurge  from  the  God  of  the  Old 
Testament;  he  followed  Valentine  in  his  theory  of 
eons,  and  propounded  one  or  two  original  unorthodox 
theories  of  his  own,  such  as  his  denial  of  the  salva- 

"  Address  to  the  Greeks,  chaps.  29-30. 


202     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

bility  of  Adam.  By  the  time  he  died  (a.d.  172)  he  was 
regarded  by  the  Church  as  a  dangerous  heretic  and 
was  banished,  but  it  was  probably  before  he  fell  so 
far  from  orthodoxy  and  yet  after  he  began  to  scruple 
concerning  the  true  humanity  of  the  Christ  that  he 
wrote  his  Diatessaron.^^ 

This  Diatessaron  or  "Harmony  of  the  Four  Gos- 
pels" was  an  attempt  to  weave  everything  in  all  the 
gospels  into  one  continuous  narrative.  It  was  a  diffi- 
cult task  but  a  very  worthy  one,  and  it  made  a  serious 
impression  upon  the  early  Church.  Undoubtedly  it  re- 
ceived criticism,  for  it  was  a  new  and  advanced  plan 
for  Bible  study — and  all  such  plans  are  criticized — but 
it  nevertheless  became  so  popular  that  by  the  third 
century  it  was  being  read  in  some  churches  (notably 
at  Edessa)  instead  of  the  four  gospels  at  the  regular 
church  services.  This  continued  to  be  such  a  common 
custom  that  when  Ephraem  Syrus,  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, wrote  his  commentary  on  the  gospels,  he  actually 
took  this  "Harmony"  as  the  text  on  which  he  based 
his  comments.^^  But  when  the  Peshito  was  issued, 
probably  by  Rabbula  the  bishop  of  Edessa,  as  the 
"Authorized  Version"  of  the  Syrian  Church  (a.d.  411- 
435),  a  crusade  began  against  this  Harmony  of  Tatian, 
and  proved  so  successful  that  soon  not  only  had  the 
public  use  of  the  work  ceased  in  the  Church,  but  it 
almost  disappeared  from  private  circulation,  altho  it 
was  occasionally  read  as  late  as  the  middle  ages. 

The  unusual  importance  of  this  work  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  certainly  the  Peshito  (fifth 
century)  and  perhaps  even  the  Old  Syriac  translation 

*^  Some  time  between  a.d.  153-170,  according  to  Nestle  in  Hastings,  Diet, 
of  Bible,  IV.,  646. 

*^Di<;t.  of  Bible,  Extra  Vol.,  p.  452;  Studia  Biblica,  III.,  U2ff. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED    203 

(cir.  A.D.  175)  had  been  influenced  by  it;  yet  unfor- 
tunately the  original  work  was  entirely  lost  and  all  that 
remained  of  it  were  a  few  quotations  in  certain  early 
writings.  However,  an  Armenian  translation  of  a 
commentary  by  Ephraem  Syrus,  who  had  used  the 
work,  one  imperfect  fourteenth  century  Arabic  MS. 
which  purported  to  be  a  translation  of  the  Diatessaron, 
and  a  Latin  codex  (Ftddensis)  of  the  sixth  century, 
which  was  thought  by  some  to  be  a  translation  of  it, 
were  recovered.  Notwithstanding  the  imsatisfactory 
data,  Professor  Zahn,  in  1881,  gathered  all  the  evi- 
dence available  and  attempted  to  reconstruct  the  orig- 
inal text — an  attempt  which  was  proved  to  be  bril- 
liantly successful  by  the  discovery  of  another  older  and 
better  Arabic  text  which  was  published  by  Ciasca  with 
a  Latin  translation,  in  1888,  in  honor  of  the  jubilee 
of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  While  this  Arabic  MS.  was  only 
of  the  eleventh  century,  it  translated  a  Syriac  text 
written  in  the  ninth  century  and  showed  far  less  con- 
formity to  the  orthodox  Syriac  version  than  any 
manuscript  previously  known.  While,  of  course,  a 
late  manuscript  such  as  this  could  be  of  no  value  in 
settling  by  its  readings  the  ancient  text,  yet  wherever 
this  manuscript  could  be  tested  by  ancient  quotations 
it  proved  its  trustworthiness.  Its  independence  was 
shown  by  the  omission  of  the  last  twelve  verses  of 
Mark  omitted  in  the  oldest  Greek  MSS.,  and  also  by 
the  omission  of  Luke  22:43,  44  (the  bloody  sweat) 
and  23:34  (the  prayer  on  the  cross),  which  it  was 
known  Tatian  had  omitted  from  his  "Harmony,"  tho 
there  was  in  general  a  verbal  harmonization  with  the 
accepted  Syriac  text. 

Only  a   short   time  before   this   discovery,   a   cele- 


204    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

brated  foreign  critic  had  declared  that  if  this  lost  work 
were  ever  recovered,  it  would  be  seen  that  Tatian's 
gospels  were  not  at  all  our  gospels,  but  very  different 
records,  since  at  that  early  date  (a.d.  160-170)  our 
gospels,  as  we  now  have  them,  with  their  accounts  of 
miracles  and  assertion  of  our  Lord's  deity  and  other 
supernaturalisms,  were  probably  not  received  as  au- 
thoritative, even  if  they  were  then  in  existence.  The 
scientific  recovery  of  what  is  essentially  the  ancient 
form  of  this  "oldest  life  of  Christ,"  compiled  from  the 
four  gospels,  has  sufficiently  answered  such  skepticism; 
and  it  is  a  source  of  considerable  gratification  that  we 
now  possess  several  English  translations  of  this  newly 
discovered  manuscript,  one  of  the  best  of  which  is 
that  by  Rev.  J.  Hamlyn  Hill,  of  Cambridge,  whose  work 
we  shall  use  freely  in  the  comparisons  about  to  be 
made.'*^ 

In  appreciating  the  value  of  this  new  discovery  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Syriac  was  Tatian's  native 
language  and  the  first  language  into  which  our  gospels 
were  ever  translated,  and  that  scholars  generally  be- 
lieve that  this  translation  of  our  gospels  from  Greek 
into  Syriac  had  probably  been  made  either  before  the 
Apostle  John  died  or,  at  farthest,  within  two  genera- 
tions afterward. ^^     Does,  therefore,  this  Tatian  manu- 

^  Earliest  Life  of  Christ,  Edinburgh,  1894. 

"  1  am  accepting  here  provisionally  the  ordinary  dating  of  St.  John's 
death  (cir.  a.d.  100-105),  tho  it  must  be  admitted  that  modern  scholarship 
has  made  this  dating  quite  insecure.  See  e.g.,  Moffatt,  Introduction  to  the 
Literature  of  the  New  Testament,  pp.  602-619.  Yet  the  names  of  great 
scholars  can  still  be  cited  who  do  not  accept  the  popular  modern  position. 
Besides  Harnack,  Drummond,  Stanton,  Workman,  Lepin,  Abbott,  J.  H. 
Bernard,  and  J.  Armitage  Robinson  quoted  by  Moffat  (op.  cit.,  p.  605), 
add  the  strong  arguments  for  the  old  view  offered  by  Zahn,  Introduction 
to  the  New  Testament,  1909,  III.,  178-194;  Peake,  Critical  Introduction  to 
the  New  Testament,  1913,  pp.  136-151 ;  and  for  a  non-committal  position 
Sanday,  Criticism  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  1905,  pp.  108,  251^.;  and  Swete, 
Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  1907,  pp.  clxxv.-clxxxv. 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED    205 

script  make  known  to  us  different  gospels  from  those 
reported  to  us  by  the  evangeHsts ;  gospels  in  a  formative 
state  out  of  which  the  gospels  which  the  Church  now 
accepts  were  evolved  toward  the  end  of  the  second 
century?  Not  at  all.  That  was  the  theory  woven  with 
great  ingenuity  and  learning  upon  German  and  French 
spindles  some  few  yeai*s  ago;  but  the  theory  is  already 
dead  and  buried.  This  is  not  a  "patchwork,"  as  one 
learned  scholar  called  it,  made  up  of  various  primi- 
tive traditions  very  different  from  our  own ;  but  is  an 
amalgamation  of  our  four  gospels  and  of  our  four 
gospels  only,  with  not  one  sentence  taken  from  any 
'  "Gospel  of  Peter"  or  any  other  apocryphal  gospel 
however  ancient  or  however  interesting.^^  If  this 
eleventh  century  Arabic  text,  made  from  a  ninth 
century  Syriac  MS.,  represents  truly  the  original 
Syriac  text  of  Tatian,  as  scholars  now  seem  generally 
to  acknowledge,^^  it  discovers  to  us  the  text  of  the 
gospels  which  over  1,700  years  ago  was  accepted  both 
by  the  orthodox  and  the  heterodox  churches.  It  is 
impossible  to  attempt  here  a  comparison  of  this  text 
with  the  ancient  Syriac  version  (the  Peshito)  and  the 
Greek  text.  It  may  be  said  in  general  terms  that  this 
Arabic  translation  (representing  Tatian's  Syriac)  does 
not  fundamentally  differ  from  our  present  Greek  text 
much  more  than  the  German  or  French  Testament 
differs  from  it.  There  are,  however,  a  few  peculiar 
readings;  e.g.,  "No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time; 
the  only  begotten   God  who   is   in  the  bosom  of   the 

**  So  Gregory  distinctly  affirms,  Canon  and  Text  of  Nem  Testament, 
1907,  p.  128;  as  to  Tatian's  manner  of  using  the  Gospel  material  see  the 
remarkably  clear  and  thorough  examination  by  A.  A.  Hobson  in  Univ.  of 
Chicago's  Hist,  and  Linguistic  Studies,  2d  Series  Vol.  I.,  841. 

'^^  E.g.,  Hist,  and  Linguistic  Studies,  2d  Series,  Vol.  I.,  Univ.  of  Chicago, 
1909,  p.  216. 


2o6    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Father,  he  has  declared  him";  ''Glory  to  God  m  the 
highest  and  on  earth  peace,  good  hope  to  men"; 
"Strain  out  a  gnat  and  adorn  a  camel,"  etc.  Instead  of 
"pray  and  not  faint"  this  version  reads  "pray  and  be 
not  slothful."  On  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  in- 
stead of  the  remark:  "They  saw  no  man  save  Jesus 
only,"  this  version  reads:  "They  saw  Jesus  even  as  he 
was."  When  Jesus  said  to  the  young  man  "sell  all" 
this  version  adds,  "at  this  word  the  young  man 
frowned."  Instead  of  "a  hundredfold"  this  version 
writes  "twice  as  many."  In  Gethsemane,  instead  of 
"sweating  great  drops  of  blood"  this  version  declares 
it  was  "a  stream  of  blood";  and  when  Jesus  says  to 
Cephas,  "thou  shalt  catch  men,"  this  version  adds, 
"thou  shalt  be  catching  men  unto  life." 

In  almost  all  of  these  readings  the  text  of  Tatian 
follows  that  of  the  Old  Syriac,  but  there  are  some  terms 
of  expression  peculiar  to  himself;  e.g.,  "He  that  hath 
received  this  witness  hath  set  his  seal  to  this,  that  he 
is  truly  God";  "Forgive  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven,  re- 
lease and  ye  shall  be  released";  "And  many  envied  him 
and  did  not  apply  their  mind  to  him";  "Even  so  your 
Father  which  is  in  the  heavens  willeth  not  that  any 
one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish,  whom,  after  err- 
ing, he  calleth  to  repent";  "That  which  is  exalted 
among  men  is  small  in  the  sight  of  God" ;  "Spitting  on 
his  own  fingers,  he  put  them  on  the  blind  man  and 
healed  him,"  etc.  The  greatest  changes  are  a  few 
vivid  touches  at  the  trial  and  crucifixion  peculiar  to 
this  edition.  When  Jesus  "went  out,  Simon  Cephas 
was  standing  in  the  outer  court  warming  himself," 
and  going  to  Calvary  "Jesus  went  on  with  his  cross 
behind  him."    The  title  was  written  on  a  "tablet"  and 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED    207 

nailed  to  the  cross,  and  the  chief  priests  and  scribes 
"mocked  him  and  laughed  to  each  other  saying,  The 
Saviour  of  others  can  not  save  himself." 

Such  are  the  most  striking  of  all  the  differences 
between  this  version  of  the  gospels  and  ours — a 
scarcely  greater  difference,  so  far  as  fundamental  state- 
ment of  doctrine  or  fact  is  concerned,  than  between  the 
A.  V.  and  the  R.  V.  or  between  the  French  and  the 
English  Testaments.  It  ought,  perhaps,  to  be  empha- 
sized -once  more  that  there  is  no  evidence  whatever 
that  Tatian  intended  his  compendium  to  supersede  the 
four  gospels.  It  seems  rather  intended  to  have  been 
a  companion  to  the  four  gospels,  just  as  our  modern 
harmonies  are.  This  discovery  proves  once  more  the 
care  of  the  gospel  text  taken  by  those  early  Christians 
who  lived  within  fifty  years  of  the  apostolic  age.^* 
Justin  Martyr,  the  teacher  of  Tatian,  received  many 
accounts  from  the  aged  men  concerning  Jesus  and  his 
life,  which  he  regarded  as  being  absolutely  reliable — 
the  names  of  the  thieves  on  the  cross,  various  people 
who  had  been  healed,  etc., — and  Tatian  no  doubt  be- 
lieved these  things,  too;  but  he  did  not  put  in  one 
single  item  of  that  kind.  He  stuck  close  to  the  thought 
of  the  original  Greek,  which  he  evidently  regarded  as 
the  authoritative  inspired  original,  and  was  so  anxious 
not  "to  omit  the  slightest  comment  of  any  one  evan- 
gelist unless  it  was  substantially  preserved  in  the  words 
of  another"  that  often  he  has  been  led  into  undue 
repetition  "by  placing  one  after  the  other  passages  of 
different  evangelists  that  vary  but  little  from  one  an- 
other." 

"  E.g.,  see  Hastings,  Diet,  of  Bible,  V.,  452 ;  A.  A.  Hobson,  Diatesseron 
of  Tatian  and  the  Synoptic  Problems,  p.  80;  Milligan,  New  Test.  Docu- 
ments, p.  219. 


2o8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

There  were  no  brilliant  "patchwork"  additions  by 
the  heretical  editor.  The  worst  that  Tatian  did  was  to 
omit  from  his  "Harmony"  the  genealogies  of  Jesus 
and  other  references  that  "show  our  Lord  to  have  been 
born  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the  flesh";  yet 
the  book  and  its  author  were  anathematized.  The 
early  Church  would  not  sanction  even  an  abridged 
edition,  much  less  a  mutilated  edition  of  the  authori- 
tative historical  records.  The  discovery  of  this  docu- 
ment, and  its  acceptance  by  scholars  as  representing 
the  ancient  Syriac  text,  also  buries  the  theory  so 
popular  a  few  generations  ago  that  the  miracles  of 
the  gospels  were  an  addendum  to  the  original  un- 
miraculous  narrative  of  the  Lord's  life.  This  dis- 
'  covery  makes  still  more  certain,  what  was  sufficiently 
proved  before,  that  the  "memoirs  of  the  apostles," 
which  Justin  says  "contained  all  things  concerning  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,"  and  were  read  together  with  the 
writings  of  the  prophets  in  the  weekly  services  of  the 
Christians,  were  our  four  gospels  and  none  other; 
since  Tatian,  the  heretical  disciple  of  Justin,  uses  these 
and  none  other  as  the  authoritative  and  the  only  au- 
thoritative historical  and  biographical  documents  of 
the  Christian  Church.  Already,  only  two  generations 
after  the  death  of  the  last  apostle,  these  four  gospels 
(just  these  four  and  no  others),  altho  written  in  differ- 
ent countries  by  different  persons  and  at  different 
times,  had  been  so  long  recognized  as  Christian  Scrip- 
tures that  they  could  be  used  in  combination  both  by 
heretic  and  orthodox  as  the  complete  and  authoritative 
record  of  the  events  related  in  them.  Thus  the  most 
scholarly   and   weighty    arguments    ever    formulated 


ANCIENT  NEW  TESTAMENTS  DISCOVERED    209 

ae'ainst  the  Christian  faith  ^^  have  been  rendered  ob- 
solete.'' 

In  completing  our  survey  of  the  discoveries  in  this* 
most  important  field  of  textual  criticism  we  are  imprest 
with  the  complete  and  thorough  way  in  which  the  radi- 
cal theories  of  a  century  ago  have  been  disproved.  The 
text  of  the  New  Testament  is  now  fixt  more  certainly 
than  that  of  any  ancient  book.  Not  even  one  discovery 
has  been  opposed  to  the  overwhelming  testimony  re- 
garding the  antiquity  of  the  text,  while  the  general 
purity  of  the  text  has  been  established  by  a  mass  of 
evidence  a  hundredfold  greater  than  that  which  can 
be  marshalled  for  any  ancient  classic.  Ninety  years 
ago,  when  Home  published  his  Introduction,  about 
550  MSS.  of  the  New  Testament  had  been  collated  by 
scholars;  a  little  over  thirty  years  ago,  when  West- 
cott  and  Hort  brought  out  their  epoch-making  Greek 
text,  some  1,700  MSS.  were  ready  for  their  use;  to-day 
over  4,200  Greek  MSS.  have  been  collated,  and  they  all 
confirm  the  integrity  and  purity  of  the  New  Testament, 
text. 

The  importance  of  the  new  discoveries  may  be  vividly 
appreciated  by  remembering  that  300  years  ago,  when 
the  King  James'  version  was  made,  probably  not  one 
MS.  dating  as  far  back  as  the  sixth  century  was  avail- 
able for  purposes  of  textual  criticism;  even  when  the 
Revised  Version  was  issued  less  than  a  dozen  such 
MSS.  were  known;  but  between  the  years  1900-1912 
we  find  that  twelve  papyri  written  in  uncial  form  and 

^  I  refer  to  the  brilliant  arguments  of  Baur  and  Strauss. 

"For  literature  on  Tatian's  Diatessaron  see  especially  Hastings,  Diet, 
of  Bible,  IV.,  648;  Ency.  Brit.,  III.,  882;  XXVI.,  312;  for  the  story  of 
Zahn's  most  brilliant  restoration  of  the  text  see  Hist,  and  Linguistic 
Studies,  Univ.  of  Chicago,  1909. 


210    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  very  great  importance  were  discovered,  ten  of  these 
containing  substantial  parts  of  the  New  Testament 
and  two  of  them  containing  complete  copies  of  the  four 
gospels;  while  many  fragments  of  texts  containing  the 
Acts,  Catholic  epistles  and  Pauline  epistles  were  found, 
500  different  Bible  texts  having  been  discovered  dur- 
ing that  brief  period.^^ 

In  addition  to  these  Greek  texts  hundreds  of  manu- 
scripts in  many  languages,  Coptic,  Syriac,  Latin,  etc., 
have  been  collated,  representing  very  ancient  transla- 
tions of  the  Greek  New  Testament — some  of  these 
being  practically  as  near  to  St.  John  as  we  are  to 
Shakespeare — and  these  also  confirm  the  integrity  of 
the  text.  A  vast  number  of  these  ancient  translations, 
especially  in  Syriac  and  Coptic,  have  been  recently 
discovered.  Of  the  old  or  Curetonian  Syriac  our 
knowledge  is  due  entirely  to  quite  recent  discoveries, 
as  ''little  more  than  fifty  years  ago  its  very  existence 
was  unknown"  (Kenyon).  Until  very  recently,  no  MS. 
of  the  Memphitic  or  Bohairic  text  older  than  a.d.  1173 
was  known  to  exist;  while  the  Thebaic  or  Sahidic  was 
not  known  until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
We  now  possess  sufficient  fragmentary  texts,  many  of 
them  from  the  fifth  or  fourth  century,  to  "compose  a 
nearly  complete  New  Testament." 

It  is  not,  therefore,  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the 
original  text  of  the  New  Testament  is  now  fixt  at  least 
as  certainly  as  the  text  of  some  of  Shakespeare's  plays. 


"  See  Keiiyon's  Handbook,  1901,  compared  with  list  given  in  the  same 
Handbook  in  1912. 


IV 

NEW  LIGHT  ON  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 
FROM  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCU- 
MENTS RECENTLY  DISCOVERED 

I.  The  Logia,  or  Newly  Discovered  '"Sayings  of 

Our  Lord" 

Up  to  our  day  the  oldest  documents  of  Christianity 
were  the  Holy  Writings,  the  MSS.  of  which  dated  from 
the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth  or  later  centuries,  at  a  time  when 
Christianity  had  become  victorious.  Not  one  scrap 
of  Christian  writing  was  known  from  any  pen  previous 
to  the  Constantine  era,  and  not  one  smallest  fragment 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  or  other  literary  or  private 
Christian  memoranda  had  survived  in  its  original  form 
nor  any  autographic  account  of  any  act  relating  to  the 
early  Christians.^ 

'  Most  wonderful  seemed  the  discovery  of  Grenfell 
and  Hunt  when,  in  1896,  they  dug  up  at  Oxyrhynchus 
a  collection  of  "Sayings  of  Jesus"  dating  from  the 
third  century  of  our  era  and  purporting  to  come  from 
the  lips  of  our  Lord  himself.  No  one  had  doubted 
that  Jesus  had  uttered  many  words  worthy  of  memory 
which  had  not  been  recorded  in  the  brief  memoranda 
contained  in  our  gospels.  St.  Paul  had  quoted  one 
such  sentence,  "It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  re- 
ceive" (Acts  20:  35),  and  Clement  of  Alexandria,  writ- 
ing at  a  time  when  the  early  Church  still  possest  a 
living  memory  of  the  apostolic  era,  had  quoted  several 
sayings  of  Jesus  which  were  most  striking:   "Be  ye 

*For  a  most  vivid   statement   of   these   facts   see  Wessely,  Les  Plus 
Anciens  Monuments  du  Cliristianisme  Ecrits  sur  Papyrus,  p.  99. 

211 


212     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

trustworthy  money  changers";  '*Ask  great  things  and 
the  small  shall  be  added  to  you";  "He  that  wonders 
(i.e.,  with  reverent  faith)  shall  reign,  and  he  that 
reigns  shall  be  made  to  rest."  In  the  Codex  Bezae, 
too,  Jesus  was  represented  as  saying  to  a  man  working 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  "Oh  man,  if  thou  knowest  what 
thou  doest,  then  blessed  art  thou;  but  if  thou  knowest 
not,  then  art  thou  accursed."^ 

When  it  is  remembered  that  in  all  the  sixteen  cen- 
turies since  Clement  there  have  not  been  two  sayings 
a  century  originated  by  all  the  thinkers  of  the  earth 
worthy  to  be  placed  alongside  the  golden  sentences  of 
Jesus,  it  becomes  possible  (and  perhaps  more  than 
possible)  that  several  of  the  above  sayings  represent 
a  correct  memory  of  the  early  Christian  Church,  thus 
giving  to  us  veritable  utterances  of  our  Lord  himself. 
This  is  even  more  probable  when  we  consider  the 
"logia"  discovered  recently. 

The  papyrus  leaf  first  published  in  1897  contained 
seven  or  eight  sayings,  as  follows: 

1.  ".  .  .  And  then  shall  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote 
that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye." 

2.  "J^sus  saith,  Except  ye  fast  to  the  world,  ye  shall  in  no 
wise  find  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and  except  ye  make  the  sabbath  a 
real  sabbath,  ye  shall  not  see  the  Father.'' 

3.  "J^sus  saith,  I  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  world,  and  in  the 
flesh  was  I  seen  of  them ;  and  I  found  all  men  drunken,  and  none 
found  I  athirst  among  them,  and  my  soul  grieveth  over  the  sons 
of  men,  because  they  are  blind  in  their  hearts  and  see  not  ..." 

4.  ".    .    .  poverty  ..." 

5.  "Jesus  saith.  Wherever  there  are  two,  they  are  not  without 
God;  and  wherever  there  is  one  alone,  I  say,  I  am  with  him. 
Raise  the  stone,  and  there  thou  shalt  find  me;  cleave  the  wood, 
and  there  am  I." 

"For  a  full  list  of  these  "sayings"  quoted  by  ancient  authors  see  J.  H. 
Ropes'  "Agrapha,"  in  Hastings,  Diet,  of  Bible,  V ;  343-352. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        213 

6.  "J^sus  saith,  A  prophet  is  not  acceptable  in  his  own  country, 
neither  doth  a  physician  work  cures  upon  them  that  know  him." 

7.  "J^sus  saith,  A  city  built  upon  the  top  of  a  high  hill  and 
established  can  neither  fall  nor  be  hid." 

8.  "Jesus  saith,  Thou  hearest  with  one  ear  (but  the  other  ear 
hast  thou  closed)." 

The  saying  which  seems  hardest  here  is  the  one 
which  was  originally  translated  "Except  ye  sabbatize 
the  sabbath,  ye  shall  not  see  the  Father."  If  this  had 
really  meant  that  no  man  could  see  the  Father  and  enter  ; 
the  kingdom  of  God  without  observing  fast  days  and 
keeping  the  Jewish  Sabbath  (Bodman,  Bacon,  James, 
etc. ) ,  then  the  idea  must  have  been  given  up  that  Jesus 
ever  uttered  these  words.  But  Prof.  J.  Rendel  Harris 
of  Oxford  and  Prof.  Adolf  Harnack  of  Berlin,  soon 
after  the  discovery,  indubitably  proved  that  these  words 
were  to  be  taken  figuratively,  not  literally.  They  gave 
many  instances  in  the  writings  of  the  early  fathers  in 
which  this  form  of  mystical  or  symbolic  language  was 
used.  To  ''fast  to  the  world"  meant,  in  the  early  Church, 
to  abstain  from  worldly  lusts  and  to  deny  sensual  ap- 
petites (Clement).  By  such  a  fast  men  died  to  the 
world  and  thus  became  able  to  enter  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  partake  of  heavenly  food  (cf.  Isa.  18:6). 
Both  Professor  Harris  and  Professor  Harnack  quoted 
the  words  of  Justin  Martyr:  "If  there  is  an  adulterer 
let  him  repent,  and  thus  he  has  sabbatized  the  true 
and  delightsome  Sabbath  of  God."  In  this  passage  the 
very  expression  was  used  which  is  found  in  the  new 
text;  so  that  the  teaching  became  plain,  and  it  is  now 
universally  accepted  that  the  injunction  to  "sabbatize 
the  sabbath"  did  not  mean  that  one  must  keep  the 
seventh  day  of  the  week  as  his  rest  day,  but  that  he 
must  keep  himself  pure  in  heart  and  in  act.    The  right 


214    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

way  of  keeping  the   sabbath   was   determined   not   by 
the  clock  or  by  the  ahnanac,  but  by  the  soul. 

When  properly  understood,  this  new  "saying"  seems 
an  eternal  word,  a  word  for  all  time,  and  is  in  beautiful 
harmony  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus  recorded  in  the 
gospels.  It  is  true  that  Professor  Harnack  thinks  that 
Jesus  would  not  have  antagonized  his  countrymen  by 
using  this  expression,  virtually  telling  them  that  with 
all  their  strict  Sabbatarianism  they  were  not  really  keep- 
ing the  Sabbath ;  but  this  objection  loses  its  force  when 
we  remember  that  the  gospels  are  full  of  this  criticism 
of  outward  sanctimoniousness  without  the  inward  spirit 
of  holiness.  He  who  spoke  so  strongly  to  hypocrites, 
scrupulous  in  their  regard  of  outside  observances  while 
inwardly  full  of  corruption,  would  not  have  hesitated 
to  call  those  who  claimed  to  be  sabbath  keepers  "sab- 
bath breakers,"  unless  they  kept  the  day  of  rest  "in 
the  spirit."  These  words  seem  to  the  writer  a  true 
message  from  the  lips  of  our  Lord,  a  message  never 
more  needed  than  in  this  age  of  sabbath  desecration 
and  worldliness. 

In  regard  to  the  third  saying,  Professor  Harnack 
in  a  burst  of  enthusiasm  cries  out:  "We  receive  this 
beautiful  word  with  thanks";  for  in  this  logion  Jesus 
speaks  as  a  divine  being  who,  tho  he  was  a  Son, 
"in  the  flesh,"  was  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  "sons 
of  men"  over  whom  he  grieved.  This  is  very  like  an 
expression  often  found  in  John's  gospel.  It  is  a  sig- 
nificant thing  that  in  all  these  new  discoveries  the 
nearer  we  get  to  the  lifetime  of  Jesus  the  more  confi- 
dently is  his  deity  presupposed  in  every  word  that 
reaches  us  from  those  martyr  centuries.  How  like 
Jesus  also  are  these  tender  words:  "My  soul  grieveth 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       215 

over  the  sons  of  men,  because  they  are  bhnd  in  their 
heart."  The  blind  heart — that  is  the  worst  thing !  One 
other  figure  used  here  recalls  St.  John's  gospel:  "I 
found  all  men  drunken  and  none  found  I  athirst  among 
them"  {cf.  John  7:  35;  Matt.  5:6).  Men  had  so  lost 
the  natural  appetites  of  the  children  of  God  that  they 
did  not  even  desire  the  pure  water  of  life.  The  world 
was  drunk  without  even  a  thirst  for  holy  things !  ^ 

In  February,  1903,  Messrs.  Grenfell  and  Hunt  re- 
turned to  Oxyrhynchus,  and  "by  a  curious  stroke  of 
good  fortune"  their  second  excavations  were,  like  the 
first,  signalized  by  the  discovery  of  another  fragment 
from  a  collection  of  "Sayings  of  Jesus."  These  sayings 
were  prefaced  by  the  statement: 

"These  are  the  (wonderful)  words  which  Jesus  the  living 
(Lord)  spake  to  .  .  .  and  Thomas;  and  he  said  unto  (them), 
everyone  that  harkens  to  these  words  shall  never  taste  of  death." 

The  translation  of  the  newly  found  sayings,  as  given 
by  Grenfell  and  Hunt,  runs  as  follows :  * 

1.  "Jesus  saith,  Let  not  him  who  seeks  .  .  .  cease  until  he 
finds,  and  when  he  finds  he  shall  be  astonished ;  astonished  he  shall 
reach  the  kingdom,  and  having  reached  the  kingdom,  he  shall 
rest." 

2.  "Jesus  saith,  (ye  ask[  ?]  who  are  those)  that  draw  us  (to  the 
kingdom  if)  the  kingdom  is  in  heaven?  .  .  .  the  fowls  of  the 
air  and  all  beasts  that  are  under  the  earth  or  upon  the  earth  and 
the  fishes  of  the  sea,  (these  are  they  which  draw)  you;  and  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you,  and  whosoever  shall  know  him- 
self shall  find  it.  (Strive  therefore)  to  know  yourselves,  and  ye 
shall  be  aware  that  ye  are  the  sons  of  the  (Almighty?)  Father; 

'We  have  used  in  this  review:  Grenfell  and  Hunt,  AOFIA  IHCOY. 

the  editio  princeps,  June,  1897;  Harnack,  "Ueber  die  jiingst  entdeckten 
Spriiche  Jesu";  Lock  and  Sanday,  "Two  Lectures  on  the  Sayings  of 
Jesus";  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Pt.  I.,  pp.  1-3. 

*"New  Sayings  of  Jesus,"  1903;  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  IV.,  1904. 


2i6     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

(and  ?)  ye  shall  know  that  ye  are  in  (the  city  of  God  ?)  and  ye  are 
(the  city?) ."5 

3.  "Jesus  saith,  A  man  shall  not  hesitate  ...  to  ask  con- 
cerning his  place  (in  the  kingdom.  Ye  shall,  know)  that  many  that 
are  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  first,  and  (they  shall  have  eternal 
life?)." 

4.  "Jesus  saith,  Everything  that  is  not  before  thy  face  and  that 
which  is  hidden  from  thee  shall  be  revealed  to  thee.  For  there 
is  nothing  hidden  which  shall  not  be  made  manifest ;  nor  buried, 
which  shall  not  be  raised." 

5.  "His  disciples  question  him  and  say,  How  shall  we  fast  and 
how  shall  we  (pray?)  .  .  .  and  what  (commandment)  shall 
we  keep  ,  .  .  ?  Jesus  saith  ...  do  not  ...  of  truth  .  .  . 
blessed  is  he." 

The  discoverers  declare  that  these  forty-two  Greek 
Hues  which  were  found  on  the  back  of  a  survey  hst 
of  various  pieces  of  land  at  Oxyrhynchus  can  hardly 
be  later  than  a.d.  300.  These  may,  indeed,  be  the  begin- 
ning of  the  collection  which  later  on  included  the  first 
found  logia,  yet  these  words  do  not  seem  as  striking 
as  those  of  the  former  series.  Of  the  first  saying,  the 
latter  part  had  been  quoted  by  Clement  of  Alexandria 
from  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews,  and  many  scholars 
believe  that  we  have  here  an  excerpt  from  that  gospel ; 
tho  Professor  Harnack  thinks  it  came  from  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians,  and  still  others  be- 
lieve that  they  came  from  the  Gospel  of  Thomas.  Most 
scholars,  however  (Sanday,  Swete,  Rendel  Harris, 
Lock,  Heinrici,  etc.),  believe  that  both  of  these  sets 
of  "sayings"  represent  an  independent  collection,  being 
possibly  one  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  write  in  con- 
nected form  an  account  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  (and 
therefore  dating  back  into  the  first  century) ;  or  else 

°  See  an  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  text  differently  in  this  and  the  follow- 
ing "saying"  in  Deissmann,  Light  from  the  East,  p.  439. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       217 

originating  very  early  in  the  second  century,  being 
composed  under  conditions  of  thought  which  had  been 
created  by  the  canonical  gospels.  The  fact  that  the 
additions  found  in  these  ''sayings"  were  evidently  not 
made  in  the  interests  of  any  sect  or  heresy  is  an  indica- 
tion that  they  contain  genuine  first  century  material. 

Perhaps  a  word  may  be  added  with  reference  to 
the  meaning  of  some  of  these  latest  sayings.  The  first 
{cf.  Matt.  6:33;  7:7;  13:  44;  Luke  5:  9;  11:9)  empha- 
sizes the  strenuous  effort  needed  to  attain  the  kingdom. 
Harnack  points  out  that  "astonishment"  is  to  be  thought 
of  as  a  sign  of  joy,  not  of  fear.  The  parallel  to  the 
second  saying  is  found  in  Luke  17:  21,  and  the  mean- 
ing is  that,  tho  the  divine  element  in  the  world  begins 
in  the  lower  stages  of  animal  creation,  yet  it  rises  to 
the  highest  stage  in  man,  who  has  within  him  the 
kingdom  of  heaven;  self-knowledge,  when  profound 
enough,  brings  God-knowledge.  The  third  saying 
{cf.  Mark  10:  31)  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  stand- 
ard of  values  in  heaven  differs  from  the  earthly 
standard.  In  the  fourth  saying  the  revelation  of  all 
hidden  things  in  the  future  is  affirmed  {cf.  Matt.  10: 
26;  Mark  4:22;  Luke  12:2).  The  question  in  the 
fifth  saying  concerning  the  keeping  of  Jewish  ordinances 
{cf.  Matt.  19:  16-22)  may  be  compared  with  the  second 
saying  in  the  earlier  collection  commented  upon  above. 

The  logia  found  in  1897  were  in  the  form  of  a 
handsomely  written  book;  those  discovered  in  1903  are 
in  roll  form,  written  on  the  back  of  a  trivial  document. 
In  the  earlier  collection  no  direct  parallel  with  John's 
or  Mark's  gospel  could  be  traced;  but  this  collection 
has  a  distinctly  mystical  and  Johannine  character,  while 
the  third  and  fourth  sayings  have  closer  connections 


2i8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

with  St.  Mark  than  with  St.  Liikc.^  It  can  be  safely 
inferred  from  the  correspondence  with  John's  gospel: 
"that  the  editor  of  the  collection  lived  in  an  atmosphere 
of  thought  influenced  by  those  speculative  ideas  in  early 
Christianity  which  found  their  highest  expression  in 
the  Fourth  Gospel"  (ibid.,  p.  14). 

The  very  latest  date  for  either  collection  would  be 
A.D.  140,  tho,  according  to  the  learned  editors,  it  prob- 
ably dates  from  the  first  century.  Sir  F.  G.  Kenyon 
thinks  this  may  be  a  collection  which  St.  Luke  himself 
used.^  Professor  Petrie  suggests  that  these  sayings,  like 
the  Memorabilia  of  Socrates,  might  naturally  grow  up 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  great  teacher.  The  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  may  have  been  originally  a  collection  of 
sayings  codifying  the  chief  tenets  of  the  "Way"  in 
thirty  clear  statements  taken  down  by  Matthew,  the  one 
handiest  with  the  pen,  long  before  any  elaborate  history 
was  needed.^ 

Several  other  isolated  "sayings"  of  Jesus,  of  perhaps 
even  an  earlier  date,  have  been  found  in  mutilated  Greek 
papyri  which  may  have  originally  contained  a  collec- 
tion of  such  words.^  There  is  also  one  new  "saying" 
which  sounds  good  enough  to  represent  a  true  tradi- 
tion in  Cod.  C.  of  the  Palestine  Syriac  Lectionary: 
"Men  must  give  an  account  of  every  good  word  which 
they  shall  not  speak."  Another  new  "saying"  in  a 
Coptic  fragment  published  by  Jacoby,  in  1900,  is  more 
doubtful:  "I  have  revealed  to  you  all  my  glory  and  I 
have  told  you  all  its  power  and  the  mystery  of  your 
apostleship."     We   do  not  mention  here   the   sayings 

*  Grenfell  and  Hunt,  op.  cit.,  p.  11. 

''  Bible  and  Ancient  Monuments,  p.  xvi. 
^AthencEum,  Sept.  27,  1897. 

*  See,  e.g.,  Wessely,  in  Zeitschrift  fur  Kath.  Theologie,  xi :  507-515. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        219 

of  Jesus  found  in  Mohammedan  literature,  altho  some 
of  these  are  quite  suggestive,  as:  "Leave  the  world 
and  meditate  over  death.  To  a  believer,  death  comes 
with  good  which  has  no  evil  after  it,  but  to  a  wicked 
man  it  comes  with  an  evil  which  has  no  good  after  it.'*' 
The  chief  value  of  these  newly  discovered  "sayings" 
is  that  they  show  the  links  between  the  canonic  and 
uncanonic  gospels  and  the  relationship  of  both  to  the 
main  current  of  orthodox  Christianity.  It  has  an  im- 
portant bearing  on  the  question  of  sources  used  in  the 
synoptic  gospels  and  indicates  that  the  mystic  elements 
in  early  records  of  Christ's  sayings  may  have  been 
more  general  and  less  peculiarly  Johannine  than 
hitherto  supposed.  It  may  be  well  to  add  that  these 
same  mystic  and  speculative  elements  are  found  in  an 
even  greater  degree  in  the  newly  discovered  Odes  of 
Solomon,  published  from  a  Syriac  version  by  J.  Rendel 
Harris  in  1909,  which  turns  out  to  be  a  book  of  Chris- 
tian songs  from  the  early  years  of  the  second  century, 
incorporating  Jewish  mystical  phraseology  from  the 
first  century  a.d.,  some  of  which  is  remarkably  similar 
to  that  used  by  the  fourth  evangelist.  This  will  be 
discust  later. 

2.  New  Fragments  of  Lost  Gospels,  Acts, 
Revelations,  etc. 

(i)  the  gospel  of  peter 

In  1885,  a  long  fragment  of  the  Gospel  and  of  the 
Apocalypse  of  Peter  was  discovered  at  Akhmim  in 
Upper  Egypt,  which  was  published  by  Bouriant  in 
1892,  and  subsequently  by  Lods,  Robinson,  Harnack, 
and  other  scholars.  This  created  a  marked  sensation 
because  it  was  the  first  to  be  found  in  modern  times 


220     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  the  multitude  of  apocryphal  gospels  known  to  have 

existed   in   the   early   centuries   of   the    Christian    era. 

The  manuscript  dates  from  about  a.d.  400,  but  the  text 

from  which  the  manuscript  was  copied  was  much  older. 

All  scholars  agree  that  this   "Gospel"  was  written  a 

good  while  before  a.d.  190,  for  by  that  date  it  was  so 

well   established   in   one   city  that   Serapion,   who   was 

bishop  of  Antioch  (a.d.  190-203),  could  write: 

"We  brethren  receive  Peter  and  the  other  apostles  even  as 
Christ;  but  the  writings  that  go  falsely  by  their  names  we  reject 
knowing  that  such  things  as  these  we  never  received  .  .  . 
(though)  most  of  it  [the  Gospel  of  Peter]  belonged  to  the  right 
teaching  of  the  Saviour,  but  some  things  were  additions."  (Euse- 
bius,  Ecclesiastical  History,  VI.,  12.) 

This  ''Gospel"  must  be  dated  then  almost  certainly 
as  early  as  the  first  half  of  the  second  century;  while 
some  scholars,  as  Dr.  Moulton  of  Cambridge  Uni- 
\'ersity,  would  put  it  a  generation  before  the  close  of 
the  first  century.  The  little  parchment  book  on  which 
this  gospel  is  written  contains  also  fragments  of  the 
Book  of  Enoch,  which  is  pre-Christian  and  is  quoted 
by  St.  Jude ;  and  also  the  Apocalypse  of  Peter,  the  com- 
position of  which  may  go  back  almost  to  the  end  of 
the  first  century  of  our  era.  The  "Gospel  according 
to  Peter"  begins  the  book.     It  reads: 

1.  "But  of  the  Jews  none  washed  his  hands,  neither  Herod 
nor  any  one  of  his  judges,  and  when  they  wished  to  wash  them, 
Pilate  rose  up.  And  then  Herod  the  king  commandeth  that  the 
Lord  be  taken,  saying  to  them,  What  things  soever  I  commanded 
you  to  do  unto  him,  do. 

2.  "And  there  was  come  there  Joseph  the  friend  of  Pilate  and 
of  the  Lord ;  and  knowing  that  they  were  about  to  crucify  him, 
he  came  to  Pilate  and  asked  the  body  of  the  Lord  for  burial.  And 
Pilate  sent  to  Herod  and  asked  his  body.  And  Herod  said, 
"Brother  Pilate,  even  if  no  one  had  asked  him,  we  should  have 
buried  him ;  since  indeed  the  sabbath  draweth  on :  for  it  is  written 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        221 

in  the  law  that  the  sun  go  not  down  on  him  that  is  put  to  death  on 
the  day  before  the  unleavened  bread,  which  is  their  feast. 

3.  "And  they  took  the  Lord  and  pushed  him  as  they  ran  and 
said,  Let  us  drag  away  the  Son  of  God,  having  obtained  power 
over  him.  And  they  clothed  him  with  purple,  and  set  him  on  the 
seat  of  judgment,  saying,  Judge  righteously,  O  king  of  Israel. 
And  one  of  them  brought  a  crown  of  thorns  and  put  it  on  the 
head  of  the  Lord.  And  others  stood  and  spat  in  his  eyes.  And 
others  smote  his  cheeks ;  others  pricked  him  with  a  reed ;  and 
some  scourged  him  saying.  With  this  honor  let  us  honor  the  Son 
of  God. 

4.  "And  they  brought  two  malefactors  and  they  crucified  the 
Lord  between  them.  But  he  held  his  peace,  as  in  no  wise  having 
pain.  And  when  they  had  raised  the  cross  they  wrote  upon  it, 
This  is  the  king  of  Israel.  And  having  set  his  garments  before 
him,  they  parted  them  among  them,  and  cast  a  lot  for  them.  And 
one  of  those  malefactors  reproached  them,  saying.  We  have  suf- 
fered thus  for  the  evils  that  we  have  done,  but  this  man,  having 
become  the  Saviour  of  men,  what  wrong  hath  he  done  to  you? 
And  they  being  angered  at  him  commanded  that  his  legs  should 
not  be  broken,  that  he  might  die  in  torment. 

5.  "And  it  was  noon  and  darkness  covered  all  Judea  and  they 
were  troubled  and  distressed  lest  the  sun  was  going  down,  since 
he  yet  lived :  (for)  it  is  written  for  them  that  the  sun  go  not  down 
on  him  that  is  put  to  death.  And  one  of  them  said,  Give  him  to 
drink  gall  with  vinegar ;  and  they  mixed,  and  gave  him  to  drink, 
and  fulfilled  all  things,  and  accomplished  their  sins  against  their 
own  heads. 

"And  many  went  about  with  lamps  supposing  that  it  was  night 
and  fell  down.  And  the  Lord  cried  out  saying,  My  power,  my 
power,  thou  hast  forsaken  me.  And  when  he  had  said  it,  he  was 
taken  up.  And  in  that  hour  the  veil  of  the  temple  was  rent  in 
twain. 

6.  "And  then  they  drew  out  the  nails  from  the  hands  of  the 
Lord,  and  laid  him  upon  the  earth,  and  the  earth  all  quaked,  and 
great  fear  arose.  Then  the  sun  shone,  and  it  was  found  the  ninth 
hour:  and  the  Jews  rejoiced  and  gave  his  body  to  Joseph  that  he 
might  bury  it,  since  he  had  seen  what  good  things  he  had  done. 
And  he  took  the  Lord  and  washed  him  and  wrapped  him  in  a 
linen  cloth  and  brought  him  to  his  own  tomb,  which  was  called 
the  Garden  of  Joseph." 


222     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

In  the  seventh  section  the  people  and  priests  lament, 
saying-,  "Woe  for  our  sins,"  and  later  charge  the  disci- 
ples of  Jesus  with  ''wishing  to  set  fire  to  the  temple.'*' 
In  the  eighth  section  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  and 
elders  ask  a  guard: 

"And  Pilate  gave  them  Petronius  the  centurion  with  soldiers  to 
watch  the  tomb.  And  the  elders  and  scribes  came  with  them  to  the 
sepulcher,  and  having  rolled  a  great  stone,  along  with  the  cen- 
turion and  the  soldiers  they  altogether  who  were  there  set  it  at 
the  door  of  the  sepulcher,  and  they  put  upon  it  seven  seals ;  and 
they  pitched  a  tent  there  and  kept  watch." 

Section  nine  describes  the  resurrection  heralded  by 
a  great  voice  in  the  heaven,  and  "two  men  descending 
thence  with  great  light  and  approaching  the  tomb. 
And  that  stone  which  was  put  at  the  door  rolled  away 
of  itself  and  departed  to  one  side;  and  the  tomb  was 
opened  and  both  the  young  men  entered  in." 

The  tenth  section  reads: 

"When  therefore  the  soldiers  saw  it,  they  awakened  the  cen- 
turion and  the  elders,  for  they  too  were  hard  by  keeping  watch ; 
and  as  they  declared  what  things  they  had  seen,  again  they  see 
coming  forth  from  the  tomb  three  men,  and  the  two  supporting  the 
one,  and  a  cross  following  them.  And  of  the  two  the  head  reached 
unto  the  heaven  but  the  head  of  him  that  was  led  by  them  over- 
passed the  heavens.  And  they  heard  a  voice  from  the  heavens 
saying.  Hast  thou  preached  to  them  that  sleep?  And  an  answer 
was  heard  from  the  cross,  Yea." 

Section  eleven  tells  of  the  report  of  the  centurion 
to  Pilate,  and  Pilate's  confession,  "Truly  he  was  the 
Son  of  God  ...  I  am  pure  from  the  blood  of  the 
Son  of  God."  The  leaders  of  the  Jews  also  beseech 
Pilate  to  command  the  soldiers  to  say  nothing  of  the 
things  which  they  had  seen,  "for  it  is  better  for  us  to 
incur  the  greatest  debt  of  sin  before   God,   and  not 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        223 

to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  people  of  the  Jews  and  to 
be  stoned." 

The  twelfth  and  thirteenth  sections  tell  of  the 
women  coming  secretly  to  the  tomb  fearing  lest  the 
Jews  should  see  them,  and  finding  to  their  surprize  that 
the  stone  was  rolled  away.  They  see  an  angel  in  the 
midst  of  the  tomb,  who  tells  them  of  the  resurrection. 
"For  he  is  risen  and  gone  away  thither  whence  he  was 
sent." 

The  gospel  ends  with  the  fourteenth  section: 

"Now  it  was  the  last  day  of  the  unleavened  bread,  and  many 
went  forth  returning  to  their  homes,  as  the  feast  was  ended.  But 
we  the  twelve  disciples  of  the  Lord  wept  and  were  grieved :  and 
each  one,  grieving  for  that  which  was  come  to  pass,  departed  to 
his  home.  But  I,  Simeon  Peter,  and  Andrew  my  brother  took 
our  nets  and  went  away  to  the  sea ;  and  there  was  with  us  Levi 
the  son  of  Alphaeus  whom  the  Lord  .    .    ."  ^^ 

In  considering  the  above  account,  the  hatred  of  the 
writer  for  the  Jews  is  constantly  in  evidence.  Pilate  is 
exonerated.  The  Jews  must  bear  all  the  blame.  He  is 
also  a  heretic,  for  he  is  not  willing  to  admit  the  hu- 
manity of  Jesus  who  (sec.  4)  could  not  suffer  pain 
until  (sec.  5)  the  "power"  (the  divine  Christ)  finally 
left  the  human  Jesus  upon  the  cross.  Considering  that 
this  probably  represents  the  earliest  of  all  known  apoc- 
ryphal gospels,  it  is  suggestive  to  note  that  it  has  be- 
neath it  every  one  of  our  four  gospels,  in  some  places 
referring  to  particulars  only  found  in  John's  gospel, 
and  in  other  places  depending  definitely  upon  Matthew, 
or  Mark,  or  Luke.  This  is  but  a  fragment  of  the 
gospel,  and  deals  only  with  the  death  of  Jesus;  yet  it 
gives  testimony  to  the  fact  that  Jesus  lived,  was  brought 

'"  The  above  translation  is  given  from  "The  Gospel  According  to  Peter," 
by  J.  A.  Robinson,  1892. 


224    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

to  death  by  the  Jews  on  a  Friday,  was  tried  before 
Herod  and  Pilate;  it  tells  of  the  purple  robe  and  crown 
of  thorns  and  that  he  was  spit  upon  and  smitten  on 
the  cheek;  it  gives  the  names  of  several  disciples,  and 
says  there  were  twelve  in  all;  it  declares  that  he  was 
crucified  between  two  malefactors,  one  of  whom  re- 
pented; it  gives  the  title  on  the  cross  and  the  time  of 
the  death ;  it  tells  of  the  parting  of  garments,  the  drink- 
ing of  gall  and  vinegar,  the  cry  on  the  cross,  the  rend- 
ing of  the  temple  veil,  and  the  darkness  that  was  over 
all  the  earth;  it  reports  the  begging  of  the  body  by 
Joseph,  who  wrapt  it  in  linen  clothes  and  laid  it  in 
his  own  tomb,  and  of  the  guard  asked  of  Pilate  by  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees  for  three  days;  it  describes  the 
rolling  away  of  the  stone,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
the  flight  of  the  soldiers,  the  visit  of  Mary  Magdalene 
and  other  women,  and  the  questions  and  answers  of 
the  angels.  These  are  a  few  of  the  many  facts  to 
which  this  little  independent  fragment,  not  a  part  of 
the  Bible,  testifies.  It  also  emphasizes  in  a  most 
marked  way  the  deity  of  Christ.  This  author,  who 
may  have  acttially  been  a  contemporary  of  St.  John, 
or  at  least  lived  as  near  the  apostolic  age  as  we  do  to  the 
age  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  believed  so  fully  in  the  deity 
of  Christ  that  he  almost  or  quite  denied  his  humanity. 
This  oldest  non-Biblical  account  of  Christ's  life  in 
Greek  does  not  contain  nearly  so  many  grotesque  im- 
becilities as  the  later  apocryphal  gospels.  Many  of 
these  fill  up  the  boyhood  of  Jesus  with  silly  miracles. 
He  can  carry  water  in  a  cloak;  he  helps  his  father 
in  the  carpenter  shop  by  stretching  timber  to  the 
proper  length  with  his  bare  hand;  he  plants  one  grain 
of  wheat  and  threshes  eight  hundred  bushels ;  he  makes 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        225 

birds  out  of  clay,  and  by  clapping  his  hands  gives  life  to 
them;  when  a  boy  runs  against  him  on  the  street  Jesus 
becomes  angry  and  curses  him,  whereupon  he  immedi- 
ately falls  down  dead ;  and  when  the  dead  boy's  parents 
complain  they  become  blind.  Things  almost  as  foolish 
as  this  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  apocryphal  gospels, 
and  even  in  this  earliest  one  is  the  fanciful  statement 
about  the  cross  walking  and  talking,  and  about  Christ 
coming  out  of  the  tomb  so  tall  that  his  head  was  above 
the  clouds.  How  it  would  have  destroyed  the  dignity 
of  the  solemn  narratives  to  which  we  have  been  ac- 
customed if  any  such  grotesque  incident  had  crept  into 
our  gospels. 

(2)    THE   REV^ELATION    OF    PETER 

In  the  same  year  in  which  the  Gospel  of  Peter  was 
found  and  in  the  same  book  in  which  it  was  recorded, 
the  Revelation  of  Peter  came  to  light.  This  is  a  docu- 
ment constantly  mentioned  in  early  writings:  yet  only 
eight  lines  from  this  famous  ancient  treatise  had  been 
known  to  scholars  previous  to  this  discover}\  It  had 
such  an  enormous  influence  in  early  times  that  it  dis- 
tinctly affected  the  Sibylline  oracles  and  the  Apocalypse 
of  Paul,  and  even  influenced  through  the  latter  the 
Divina  Commedia  of  Dante;  yet  no  scholar  in  modern 
times  had  ever  read  it.  As  translated  and  paragraphed 
by  Montague  Rhodes  James "  this  document  begins 
as  follows: 

I.  "Many  of  them  will  be  false  prophets  and  will  teach  ways 
and  various  doctrines  of  perdition :  and  they  will  be  sons  of  per- 
dition. And  then  will  God  come  unto  my  faithful  ones  that  are 
hungering  and  thirsting  and  suffering  oppression  and  proving 
their  own  souls  in  this  life;  and  he  will  judge  the  sons  of  lawless- 
ness." 

"  Revelation  of  Peter,  1892. 


226     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  second  and  third  paragraphs  tell  of  the  Lord 
and  his  disciples  going  to  the  mountain  to  pray.  The 
disciples  besought  the  Lord  that  he  show  them  one  of 
the  righteous  brethren  that  had  departed  from  the 
world,  so  that  they  might  see  what  form  the  dead  took 
in  the  future  life.  While  they  prayed,  two  of  these 
departed  saints  stood  before  them,  "their  bodies  whiter 
than  any  snow  and  redder  than  any  rose  .  .  .  and  their 
shoulders  like  a  wreath  woven  of  spikenard  and  bright 
flowers,  and  their  raiment  so  bright  that  they  could  not 
be  looked  upon." 

In  paragraphs  four  and  five  the  Lord  showed  to 
the  disciples  the  other  world  "blooming  with  unfading 
flowers  .  .  .  and  the  dwellers  in  that  place  clad  in  the 
raiment  of  angels  of  light." 

The  remainder  of  this  "Revelation"  (paragraphs 
7-20)  had  to  do  with  a  vision  of  the  place  of  the 
damned.     We  ofifer  a  few  quotations: 

"And  there  were  some  there  hanging  by  their  tongues,  and 
these  were  they  that  blaspheme  the  way  of  righteousness :  and 
there  was  beneath  them  fire,  flaming  and  tormenting  them." 

"And  there  were  also  women  hung  by  their  hair  over  that  mire 
that  bubbled  up :  and  these  were  they  that  adorned  themselves  for 
adultery :  and  the  men  that  had  been  joined  with  them  in  the 
defilement  of  adultery  were  hanging  by  their  feet,  and  had  their 
heads  in  the  mire :  and  all  were  saying,  We  believed  not  that  we 
should  come  into  this  place." 

"And  I  saw  the  murderers  ,  .  .  and  there  were  set  upon 
them  worms  as  it  were  clouds  of  darkness.  And  the  souls  of 
them  that  had  been  murdered  were  standing  and  looking  upon 
the  punishment  of  those  murderers  and  saying,  O  God,  righteous 
is  their  judgment." 

"And  hard  by  that  place  I  saw  another  narrow  place  wherein 
the  gore  and  the  filth  of  them  that  were  tormented  ran  down  and 
became  as  it  were  a  lake  there.  And  there  sat  women  having  the 
gore  up  to  their  throats  .  .  .  and  these  were  they  that  destroyed 
their  children  and  caused  abortion.'' 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        22-] 

"And  there  were  other  men  and  women  on  fire  up  to  their 
middle  and  cast  into  a  dark  place  and  scourged  by  evil  spirits 
and  having  their  entrails  devoured  by  worms  that  rested  not :  and 
these  were  they  that  persecuted  the  righteous  and  delivered  them 
up." 

"And  hard  by  them  again  were  women  and  men  gnawing  their 
lips  and  being  tormented  and  receiving  red  hot  iron  upon  their 
eyes :  and  these  were  they  that  had  blasphemed  and  spoken  evil 
of  the  way  of  righteousness   ..." 

"And  in  a  certain  other  place  were  pebbles  sharper  than  swords 
or  than  any  spit,  red  hot,  and  women  and  men  clad  in  filthy  rags 
were  rolling  upon  them  in  torment :  and  these  were  the  wealthy 
that  had  trusted  in  their  wealth  and  had  not  had  pity  upon  orphans 
and  widows." 

"And  in  another  great  lake  full  of  pitch  and  blood  and  boiling 
mire  stood  men  and  women  up  to  their  knees :  and  these  were 
they  that  lent  money  and  demanded  interest  on  interest." 

"And  others  again  .  .  .  women  and  men  were  burning  and 
turning  themselves  and  being  roasted  :  and  these  were  they  that  had 
forsaken  the  '    ■"  of  God." 

This  apocalypse  naturally  falls  into  three  parts. 
The  first  is  the  eschatological  discourse ;  the  second,  the 
vision  of  Paradise;  the  third,  the  inferno.  The  first 
is  doubtless  intended  to  recall  Matt.  24:  24  and  Mark 
13:22,  and  is  supposed  to  be  the  concluding  lines  of 
a  speech  of  our  Lord  concerning  the  end  of  the  world; 
but  it  also  contains  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  second 
epistle  of  Peter,  a  dozen  distinct  resemblances  to  this 
epistle  being  detected  in  this  and  the  following  para- 
graphs. Perhaps  the  greatest  importance  of  these  non- 
canonical  visions  of  heaven  and  hell  is  found  in  the 
contrast  they  offer  to  the  reticent  statements  of  the 
canonical  gospels.  This  new  discovery  shows  very 
clearly  how  even  the  earliest  Christians  were  accus- 
tomed in  their  sermons  to  picture  the  future  world. 
It  also  shows  how  many  of  our  popular  notions  are 


228     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ultimately  derived,  not  from  Holy  Scriptures,  but  from 
the  early  apocryphal  literature. 

(3)    OTHER  FRAGMENTS  OF  IMPORTANCE  RECENTLY 
RECOVERED 

A  very  much  more  important  discovery  was  made 

in  1903  by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  in  this  same  town  of 

Oxyrhynchus.^^     It  is  a  fragment  of  a  lost  gospel,  the 

manuscript  of  which  dates  from  the  third  century,  the 

very  words  of  which  recall  vividly  the  language  of  our 

own  gospels.     It  reads: 

"Take  no  thought  from  morning  until  evening  nor  from  eve- 
ning until  morning,  either  for  your  food  what  ye  shall  eat  or  for 
your  raiment  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Ye  are  far  better  than  the 
lillies  which  grow  but  spin  not.  Having  one  garment  what  do 
ye  (lack)?  .  .  .Who  could  add  to  your  stature?  He  himself 
will  give  you  your  garment.  His  disciples  say  unto  him,  When 
wilt  thou  be  manifest  unto  us  and  when  shall  we  see  thee?  He 
saith,  When  ye  shall  be  stripped  and  not  be  ashamed  .  .  .  He 
said,  The  key  of  knowledge  ye  hid;  ye  entered  not  in  yourselves 
and  to  them  that  were  entering  in  ye  opened  not." 

Even  Zahn  looks  with  some  favor  on  the  genuine- 
ness of  this  fragment  which,  as  Grenfell  and  Hunt  be- 
lieve, originated  earlier  than  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  and  is  taken  from  a  narrative  "which  followed 
more  or  less  closely  the  version  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  given  by  Matthew  and  Luke." 

In  December,  1905,  a  fragment  of  another  lost 
gospel  was  unearthed  at  Oxyrhynchus,  consisting  of 
a  single  vellum  leaf  practically  complete  except  at  one 
of  the  lower  corners.  The  leaf  was  from  a  book  so 
small  that  its  written  surface  only  slightly  exceeded  two 
inches  square.  On  the  two  pages  which  we  possess  are 
forty-five  lines  in  very  small  capital  letters,  the  form  of 

"  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  23-28. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       229 

which  indicates  a  fourth  century  date.  The  bulk  of 
the  fragment  is  concerned  with  a  conversation  which 
takes  place  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  between  Jesus 
and  a  chief  priest.  The  episode,  which  is  of  a  dramatic 
character,  is  preserved  almost  complete,  and  in  the 
translation  given  by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  reads  as  fol- 
lows: 

"...  before  he  does  wrong  makes  all  manner  of  subtle  ex- 
cuse. But  give  heed  lest  ye  also  suffer  the  same  things  as  they ; 
for  the  evil-doers  among  men  receive  their  reward  not  among  the 
living  only,  but  also  await  punishment  and  much  torment.  And  he 
took  them  and  brought  them  into  the  very  place  of  purification, 
and  was  walking  in  the  temple.  And  a  certain  Pharisee,  a  chief 
priest,  whose  name  was  Levi,  met  them  and  said  to  the  Saviour, 
Who  gave  thee  leave  to  walk  in  this  place  of  purification  and  to 
see  these  holy  vessels,  when  thou  hast  not  washed  nor  yet  have  thy 
disciples  bathed  their  feet?  But  defiled  thou  hast  walked  in  this 
temple,  which  is  a  pure  place,  wherein  no  other  man  walks  except 
he  has  washed  himself  and  changed  his  garments,  neither  does  he 
venture  to  see  these  holy  vessels. 

"And  the  Saviour  straightway  stood  still  with  his  disciples  and 
answered  him,  Art  thou  then  being  here  in  the  temple  clean  ?  He 
saith  unto  him,  I  am  clean ;  for  I  washed  in  the  pool  of  David, 
and  having  descended  by  one  staircase  I  ascended  by  another, 
and  I  put  on  white  and  clean  garments,  and  then  I  came  and  looked 
upon  these  holy  words.  The  Saviour  answered  and  said  unto 
him,  Woe,  ye  blind  who  see  not.  Thou  hast  washed  in  these  run- 
ning waters  wherein  dogs  and  swine  have  been  cast  night  and  day, 
and  hast  cleansed  and  wiped  the  outside  skin,  which  also  the  har- 
lots and  flute  girls  anoint  and  wash  and  wipe  and  beautify  for  the 
lust  of  men ;  but  within  they  are  full  of  scorpions  and  all  wicked- 
ness. But  I  and  my  disciples  who  thou  sayest  have  not  bathed 
((3spajtTiaOai)  have  been  dipped  ((3£pdm,i8'&a)  in  the  waters  of 
eternal  life,  which  come  from   .    .    .   But  woe  unto  thee   .    .    . "  " 

^'  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  V,  No.  840.  Note  here  the  metaphorical 
meaning  of  BttJlTlCco  "baptize"  (cf.  Mark  10:38),  which  has  been  also 
noticed  in  several  other  papyri.  It  may  be  added  that  the  papyri  have 
shown  that  where  the  phrase  ''baptized  into"  occurs  (e.g.,  Acts.  9 :  16 ;  19  :  5  ; 
Rom.  6:3;  Gal.  3:27)  that  the  person  baptized  becomes  the  property  of 
the  divine  person  indicated  (Souter). 


230    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  contrast  of  external  bathing  with  inward  purity 
here  is  very  hke  many  words  of  Jesus  found  in  our 
own  gospels  {cf.  Matt.  15:  1-20;  Mark  7:  1-23).  The 
statement  that  no  one  could  enter  the  temple  without 
being  previously  cleansed  ritually  is  sustained  by  Jo- 
sephus,  and  the  necessity  of  putting  on  white  garments 
is  in  accordance  with  the  regulations  for  priests  de- 
scribed in  the  Mishna;  but  nothing  is  known  about  the 
"place  of  purification"  or  the  "pool  of  David"  within 
the  temple,  while  the  statements  concerning  dogs  and 
swine  being  cast  into  the  "pool  of  David"  seems  to  be 
a  mere  rhetorical  invention;  and  it  seems  impossible 
that  the  "sacred  vessels"  would  be  visible  from  the 
place  where  Jesus  is  represented  as  standing.  "So 
great,  indeed,  are  the  divergencies  between  this  account 
and  the  extant  and,  no  doubt,  well-informed  authorities, 
with  regard  to  the  topography  and  ritual  of  the  temple, 
that  it  is  hardly  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
much  of  the  local  color  is  due  to  the  imagination  of  the 
author,  who  was  aiming  chiefly  at  dramatic  effect  and 
was  not  really  well  acquainted  with  the  temple.  But 
if  the  inaccuracy  of  the  fragment  in  this  important 
respect  is  admitted,  the  historical  character  of  the 
whole  episode  breaks  down  and  it  is  probably  to  be  re- 
garded as  an  apocryphal  elaboration  of  Matt.  15:  1-20 
and  Mark  7:  1-23.  In  these  circumstances  the  gospel 
to  which  the  fragment  belongs  can  hardly  have  been 
composed  before  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  after 
the  four  canonical  gospels  had  come  to  be  exclusively 
used  in  most  churches — a  process  which  was  complete 
by  the  end  of  the  second  century."  ^*  It  was  probably 
written   in  the  second  century,   for  altho  the  style  is 

'*Harnack,  Geschichte  der  altchristlichen  Litteratur,  II,  p.  699. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       231 

more  redundant  than  that  of  the  New  Testament,  the 
author  "is  more  successful  in  catching  something  of  the 
genuine  ring  than  many  of  the  authors  of  [the  later] 
apocryphal  gospels." 

In  1903,  the  Cairo  Museum  published  in  the  Cata- 
logue general  des  Antiquites,  No.  10735,  ^  small  uncial 
(sixth  to  seventh  centuries)  of  ten  lines  which  is  con- 
cerned with  the  annunciation  and  flight  into  Egypt; 
and  in  1906,  Wessely,  in  "Les  plus  ancients  monu- 
ments du  Christianisme"  (No.  20),  published  another 
fragment  of  a  similar  nature;  while  in  191 1  Dr.  Hunt 
edited  a  small  fragment  of  what  may  have  been  a 
Gnostic  gospel  (Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  viii.  1081).  It 
is  a  leaf  from  a  book  dating  from  the  early  part  of 
the  fourth  century,  and  its  chief  value  consists  in  one 
new  "Saying  of  our  Lord"  which  emphasizes  the  inner 
insight  needed  to  understand  the  gospel: 

"He  who  hath  hearing  beyond  his  ears  let  him  hear." 
Following  this  logion  the  gospel  continues : 

"Everything  that  is  born  of  corruption  perisheth  .  .  .  but 
that  which  is  born  of  incorruption  abideth  incorruptible  .  .  . 
The  disciples  ask  him,  How  then  can  we  find  faith  ?  The  Saviour 
saith,  If  you  pass  from  the  things  that  are  hidden  and  into  the 
light  of  the  things  that  are  seen,  the  effluence  of  conception  will  of 
itself  show  you  faith  .  .  .  He  who  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him 
hear.  The  Lord  of  all  is  not  the  Father  but  the  Fore- 
father ..." 

Another  uncanonical  gospel,  found  on  the  leaves 
of  a  papyrus  book  (fourth  century)  was  published  by 
Grenfell  and  Hunt  in  1914,^^  but  the  text  is  too  imper- 
fect to  build  upon  it  with  confidence. 

In  191 5,  Grenfell  and  Hunt  published  a  fragment 
from  still   another  of  these  uncanonical  gospels.     In 

^^  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  X.,  cf.  Greek  Papyri,  No.  10735. 


232    THE  NEW  ARCI-IEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

this  papyrus,  which  Hates  from  the  fifth  century,  the 
disciples  say  to  our  Lord: 

"Jesus,  what  cure  is  possible  for  the  sick?  And  he  saith  to 
them,  I  gave  olive  oil  and  .  .  .  myrrh  to  them  that  believe  on  the 
(name)  of  the  Father,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  Son."  '* 

Another  fragment  found  connected  with  the  last  shows 
that  even  angels  were  supposed  to  be  sick  at  times, 
and  to  need  the  divine  help  supplemented  by  medicine. 

"The  angels  of  the  Lord  rose  up  to  (mid-)  heaven  suffering  in 
their  eyes  .  .  .  The  Lord  said  Why  have  ye  come  up,  ye  holy 
and  all-pure  ones  ? 

"lao  Sabaoth,  we  have  come  up  to  receive  healing,  for  thou  art 
powerful  and  strong." 

It  is  suggestive  to  notice  how  the  early  Egyptian 
Christians  sought  in  the  worship  of  Christ  the  bodily 
healings  which  were  supposed  often  to  occur  in  the 
pagan  temples  of  Isis  and  Serapion/^ 

Still  another  Coptic  fragment  published  by  Julius 
Boehmer,  in  1903,"*  has  been  called  a  parallel  to  the 
parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan.  It  describes  our  Lord 
and  his  disciples  walking  in  the  country  and  finding  a 
mule  falling  under  its  burden  while  its  master  was  still 
beating  it: 

"And  Jesus  .  .  .  said,  Man,  why  dost  thou  beat  thy  animal  ? 
Seest  thou  not  that  it  is  too  weak  for  its  burden  .  .  .  ?  But  the 
man  answered  and  said.  What  is  that  to  you?  I  can  beat  it  as 
much  as  I  please,  since  it  is  my  property  and  I  bought  it  for  a  good 
sum  of  money  .  .  ,  But  the  Lord  said,  Do  you  not  see  how  it 
bleeds,  and  hear  you  not  how  it  laments  and  cries?  But  they 
(the  disciples)  answered  and  said.  Nay,  Lord,  we  hear  not  that  it 
laments  and  cries,  and  the  Lord  was  sad  and  exclaimed,  Woe  to 

"  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  XI,  No.  1384. 

"  See  Mary  Hamilton,  Incubation,  London,  1906,  for  cases  of  healing 
in  heathen  temples. 

^''^  N cutest.  Parallelen  uiid  Verwandtes  aiis  altcliristl.    Literatiir. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       2t,2> 

you  that  you  hear  not  how  it  cries  to  the  Creator  in  heaven,  and 
cries  for  mercy.  But  three  times  woe  to  him,  of  whom  it  com- 
plains and  cries  in  its  distress.  And  he  came  forth  and  touched 
the  animal.  And  it  arose  and  its  wounds  were  healed.  And  Jesus 
said  to  the  man,  Now,  go  on  and  beat  it  no  more,  that  you  also 
may  find  mercy."  ^^ 

Some  important  fragments  of  two  apocryphal  "Acts 
of  the  Apostles"  have  also  been  found  at  Oxyrhynchus," 
both  dating  from  the  fourth  century,  the  earliest  of 
these  (No.  849)  is  a  single  leaf  from  a  vellum  codex 
of  the  "Acts  of  Peter,"  the  two  pages  being  numbered 
167  and  168,  respectively.  Our  fragment  belongs  to 
the  portion  of  the  Acts  concerned  with  Simon  Magus, 
and  represents  an  original  manuscript  dating  from  the 
second  century.     It  reads  as  follows: 

"...  (the  youths  having  examined  his  nostrils  to  see) 
whether  indeed  he  was  really  dead,  and  seeing  that  he  was  in 
truth  a  corpse,  consoled  the  old  woman  saying.  If  indeed  you 
wish,  mother,  and  trust  in  the  God  of  Peter,  we  will  lift  him  up 
and  carry  him  thither  in  order  that  Peter  may  raise  him  and 
restore  him  to  you.  While  they  were  thus  speaking  the  prefect 
looking  intently  at  Peter  (said).  Behold,  Peter,  my  servant  lies 
dead  who  was  a  favorite  of  the  king  himself,  and  I  did  not 
spare  him  although  I  have  with  me  other  youths,  but  because 
I  desired  to  try  you  and  the  God  whom  you  preach  whether  ye 
are  indeed  true,  I  wished  him  to  die.  And  Peter  said,  God  is 
not  to  be  tried  or  proved,  Agrippa,  but  when  he  is  entreated,  he 
hearkens  to  those  who  are  worthy.    But  since  now   ..." 

The  second  fragment  (No.  850)  was  a  leaf  from 
the  "Acts  of  John,"  giving  an  incident  which  is  of  a 
type  very  familiar  in  apocryphal  Acts.     The  apostle  is 

"This  translation  is  taken  from  Bernard  Pick's  Paralipomena,  1908. 
For  a  convenient  survey  of  the  literature  in  general  see  Encyclopcedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics,  vi.,  346ff.  For  Coptic  gospels,  where  hundreds  of 
Scripture  texts  are  quoted,  see  Texts  and  Studies,  Vol.  IV. 

"  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  VI.,  1908. 


234     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

represented  visiting  the  brethren  apparently  at  a  village 
near  Ephesus,  but  his  passage  is  barred  by  a  demon 
in  the  form  of  a  soldier.  Rebuked  by  John,  the  demon 
vanishes  and,  on  reaching  his  destination,  the  apostle 
exhorts  the  brethren  to  worship  and  joins  with  them 
in  prayer.  The  back  of  the  leaf  represents  a  more 
obscure  incident  in  which  a  person  called  Zeuxis  had 
just  tried  to  hang  himself,  but  had  been  miraculously 
saved  by  St.  John.  There  is  also  some  question  about 
the  eucharist  which  is  obscure.  In  reading  this  it  may 
be  remembered  that  the  composition  of  the  original 
Acts  of  John  is  assigned  by  all  critics  to  the  second 
century.  When  our  fragment  is  compared  with  other 
previously  known  portions  of  the  Acts  of  John,  it,  like 
the  Acts  of  Peter,  agrees  with  them  so  closely  as  to 
show  that  even  these  apocryphal  works  "have  not 
undergone  any  serious  amount  of  revision"  (Hunt). 
It  is  noticeable  that  the  proconsul  in  this  account  ad- 
dresses St.  John  as  the  ''servant  of  the  unnameable 
One,"  and  that  John  prays :  "O  Jesus,  Comforter  .  .  . 
We  praise  thee  and  worship  thee  and  give  thanks 
to  thee."     The  narrative  then  continues: 

"After  a  few  days  had  passed  John  went  forth  with  several 
brethren  to  .  .  .  and  wished  to  cross  a  bridge  under  which  a 
.  .  .  river  was  flowing.  And  as  John  v/as  on  his  way  to  the 
brethren  a  certain  .  .  .  clothed  in  the  fashion  of  a  soldier  ap- 
proached him,  and  standing  before  his  face,  said,  John  if  thou 
(advancest)  thou  shall  straightway  engage  me  in  combat.  And 
John  said,  The  Lord  shall  quench  thy  threat  and  thy  wrath  and 
thy  offence,  and  behold  the  other  vanished.  John  then  having 
come  to  those  whom  he  was  visiting  and  found  them  gathered  to- 
gether spake,  Let  us  rise  up,  my  brethren,  and  bow  our  knees  be- 
fore the  Lord,  who  has  made  of  none  effect  the  unseen  activity  of 
even  the  great  (enemy?)    ...  he  bowed  his  knees  with  them 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       235 

In  another  papyrus  codex  of  an  apocryphal  "Acts" 
(fourth  century)  occurs  a  notable  sentence: 

"O,  Lord  Prefect,  this  man  is  not  a  magician  but  perhaps  his 
god  is  great."  ^^ 

A  particularly  curious  apocalyptic  work  dating  from 
the  second  century,  representing  another  type  of  com- 
position, is  the  Testament  of  Abraham.^^  Abraham  is 
represented  as  going  to  heaven's  gate  from  which  he 
saw  two  ways,  narrow  and  broad,  and  two  gates,  nar- 
row and  broad.  He  sees  Adam  laughing  and  weeping, 
but  weeping  far  more  than  he  laughed,  for  only  one 
soul  in  seven  of  all  the  human  race  was  being  saved. 
He  saw  the  angels  beating  the  lost  with  "fiery  thongs," 
and  saw  the  scales  on  which  souls  were  weighed  be- 
for  the  judge,  Abel  (of.  Gen.  4:  10;  Heb.  12:  24),  any 
soul  against  which  was  registered  one  truly  good  deed 
being  saved. 

This  is  the  first  apocalypse  in  which  occurs  the  idea 
of  the  weighing  of  good  and  evil  deeds,  tho  this  is 
common  in  Egyptian  documents  and  is  found  also  in 
Mohammedan  eschatology.  The  author  of  this  work 
paints  death  as  having  seven  dragon  heads  and  four- 
teen faces,  among  which  are  fire,  darkness,  viper,  lion, 
snake,  fiery  sword,  etc. 

The  Greek  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  (3  Baruch)  was 
found  in  1896,  tho  a  less  complete  Slavonic  version  had 
been  published  in  1886.  It  belongs  to  the  second  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  the  Jewish  original  having  been  worked 
over  by  a  Christian  editor  about  a.d.  136.  The  motive 
of  the  work  is  to  bring  Jews  and  Ebionites  to  baptism. 
It  is  full  of  symbolism  and  pictures.   In  the  extract  to  be 

**  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  VI.,  19. 

'^Texts  and  Studies,  Vol.  II.,  No.  2,  by  J.  Armitage  Robinson. 


236    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

given,  the  angels  with  full  baskets  represent  Christians ; 
those  with  half- full  baskets,  half-converted  Jews;  those 
with  empty  baskets,  opposing  Jews : 

"And  as  I  was  conversing  with  them,  behold,  angels  came  bear- 
ing baskets  full  of  flowers.  And  they  gave  them  to  Michael.  And 
I  asked  the  angel,  Lord,  who  art  these  and  what  are  the  things 
brought  hither  from  beside  them  ?  And  he  said  to  me,  These  are 
angels  who  are  over  the  righteous.  And  the  archangels  took  the 
baskets  and  emptied  them  into  the  vessel.  And  the  angel  said  to 
me.  These  flowers  are  the  merits  of  the  righteous.  And  I  saw 
other  angels  bearing  baskets  which  were  (neither)  empty  nor  full. 
And  they  began  to  lament  and  did  not  venture  to  draw  near,  be- 
cause they  had  not  the  prizes  complete.  And  Michael  cried  and 
said,  Come  hither  also,  ye  angels ;  bring  what  ye  have  brought. 
And  Michael  was  exceedingly  grieved,  and  the  angel  which  was 
with  me,  because  they  did  not  fill  the  vessel." 

"And  in  that  very  hour  Michael  descended  and  the  gate  was 
opened  and  he  brought  oil.  And  as  for  the  angels  which  brought 
the  baskets  which  were  full,  he  filled  them  with  oil,  saying.  Take 
it  away,  reward  our  friends  an  hundredfold,  and  those  who  have 
laboriously  wrought  good  works.  For  those  who  sowed  vir- 
tuously, also  reap  virtuously.  And  he  said  to  those  bringing  the 
half  empty  baskets,  Come  hither,  ye  also,  take  away  the  reward 
according  as  ye  brought,  and  deliver  it  to  the  sons  of  men"  (XV). 

"And  turning  he  said  to  those  who  brought  nothing.  Thus 
saith  the  Lord,  be  not  sad  of  countenance,  and  weep  not,  nor  let 
the  sons  of  men  alone.  But  since  they  angered  me  and  their 
works,  go  and  make  them  envious  and  angry  and  provoked  against 
a  people  that  is  no  people,  a  people  that  has  no  understanding 
.  .  .  punish  them  severely  with  the  sword  and  with  death,  and 
their  children  with  demons.  For  they  did  not  hearken  to  my 
voice  .  .  .  but  were  despisers  of  my  commandments,  and  in- 
solent towards  the  priests  who  proclaimed  my  words  to  them." 

It  was  the  Germans  who  discovered  this.  In  1896 
Dr.  Reinhardt  procured  at  Akhmim  a  large  papyrus 
codex  w^hich  turned  out  to  be  the  "Acts  of  Paul,"  a  book 
so  highly  reputed  in  the  ancient  Church"  that  many,  in  the 
fourth  century,  supposed  that  it  ought  to  have  a  place 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       237 

in  the  New  Testament.  The  book  originated  some- 
where between  a.d.  160  and  200.  Prof.  Carl  Schmidt 
of  Heidelberg,  after  laborious  study,  succeeded  in  trans- 
lating it  in  1904,  but  as  this  translation  is  too  long  and 
too  complicated  to  be  quoted  here,  we  will  merely  give 
an  abbreviation  of  Dr.  Goodspeed's  fine  summary  of 
some  of  the  chief  events  depicted  in  this  remarkable 
manuscript.^^ 

The  curtain  rises  at  Pisidian  Antioch.  Paul  restores 
to  life  a  Jewish  boy,  and  this  leads  to  the  conversion  of 
the  boy's  parents,  but  the  populace  becomes  incensed 
and  drives  Paul  from  the  town. 

Paul  reaches  Iconium.  Here  he  meets  Thecla  and 
leads  her  to  conversion.  The  story  romantically  re- 
lates this  conversion,  Thecla's  refusal  to  marry  her 
betrothed,  her  persecution,  baptism,  miraculous  escapes, 
her  visit  to  Paul  at  Myra,  her  final  retirement  to 
Seleucia,  and  her  death  there.  This  chapter,  giving  the 
"Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,"  was  the  most  popular  of 
all  the  narratives,  and  was  widely  published  in  ancient 
times  as  a  separate  tract."^ 

Paul  cures  various  persons  at  Myra  and  Tyre  and 
suffers  great  persecution  at  Sidon,  where  he  is  im- 
prisoned in  the  temple  of  Apollo,  which  collapses 
miraculously  in  the  night. 

The  apostle  has  some  adventures  in  certain  mines, 
and  then  is  imprisoned,  probably  at  Ephesus,  and  later 
at  Philippi.  At  the  latter  city  he  receives  from  the 
Corinthians  a  letter  reporting  that  two  false  teachers, 

»*  See  Biblical  World,  December,  1915. 

"  The  actual  existence  and  martyrdom  of  Thecla  has  just  been  corrobor- 
ated by  a  first  century  inscription  set  up  in  remembrance  "of  the  martyr 
Thecla"  recently  found  at  the  church  of  St.  Menas  in  N.  Cyprus  {Am. 
Journal  of  Archceology,  1915,  p.  489). 


238    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Simon  and  Cleobius,  are  disturbing  the  church,  and 
writes  to  them  the  letter  which  is  received  as  genuine 
in  many  ancient  Syrian  and  Armenian  churches.  From 
PhiHppi  he  goes  to  Rome,  where  he  is  beheaded  under 
Nero,  but  afterward  reappears. 

The  above  represent  some  of  the  most  important 
of  the  early  apocryphal  stories  in  Greek  which  have 
recently  been  discovered;  however,  very  many  of  these 
early  writings  in  Coptic  have  been  found  in  Egypt. 
Among  these  one  of  the  most  interesting  happens  to 
be  the  most  famous  of  all  the  ancient  "Acts,"  the  Book 
of  the  Resurrection,  attributed  to  the  Apostle  Bartholo- 
mew, recently  printed  by  the  trustees  of  the  British 
Museum.  It  describes  the  descent  of  Jesus  into  hell; 
the  conquest  of  death;  the  defeat  of  the  devil;  the 
destruction  of  the  gates,  bolts,  and  bars  of  hell;  the 
extinction  of  its  fires;  the  overthrow  of  its  blazing 
cauldrons;  the  liberation  of  Adam  and  Eve  and  all  the 
children  of  men;  the  final  condemnation  of  Judas 
Iscariot;  the  ascent  from  hell  of  the  Lord  Jesus;  his 
resurrection;  his  enthronement  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father  in  his  tabernacle  of  light  in  the  seventh 
heaven;  and  the  reconciliation  of  God  with  Adam  and 
his  sons. 

The  whole  Apocryphon  exhibits  strong  Egyptian 
(Gnostic)  influence,  and  professes  to  give  the  actual 
words  of  the  divine  unknown  language  in  which  Jesus 
and  the  Virgin  Mary  spoke  to  each  other.  The  first 
four  or  five  leaves  of  the  manuscript  are  wanting. 
These  no  doubt  contained,  in  addition  to  the  title  of  the 
work,  a  description  of  the  crucifixion  of  the  Savior. 
The  manuscript  continues: 

"Now  when  they  had  crucified  the  Saviour  they  laid  him  in  a 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        239 

tomb,  (and)  he  arose  from  the  dead  upon  the  third  day,  (and)  he 
carried  the  soul  of  the  holy  man  Apa  Anania  with  himi  into  heaven 
forthwith,  and  he  ate  and  drank  with  our  Saviour  at  the  table  of 
his  kingdom.  And  Joseph  of  Arimathea  made  ready  for  burial 
the  body  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  when  large  quantities  of  most 
precious  scents  and  unguents  had  been  poured  out  upon  it,  he  laid  it 
in  a  new  sepulcher;  then  Death  came  into  Amente  (the  grave) 
saying.  Where  is  this  soul  which  hath  come  forth  from  the  body 
newly  ?  It  hath  not  been  brought  unto  me  to  Amente.  For  behold 
I  have  sought  for  it  for  two  days  but  have  not  found  it.  What 
then  is  (the  meaning  of)  this  mighty  and  wonderful  thing?  I 
know  not,  neither  do  I  know  what  is  (the  meaning  of)  this  terrible 
disturbance  (which  taketh  place)  this  day.  The  whole  world  and 
everything  which  is  therein  is  in  a  state  of  violent  commotion. 
Never  before  have  I  known  anything  like  unto  this.  And  Death 
called  his  minister,  and  said  unto  him :  Let  us  go  into  every  place, 
and  see  if  we  can  find  this  newly  dead  body,  and  this  new  soul 
which  hath  hidden  itself ;  for  I  know  not  whither  it  hath  departed. 

"Then  Death  came  into  the  tomb  of  the  Savior  and  he  found  it 
lighted  up  with  the  light  of  life  and  he  went  into  the  back  of  the 
tomb  and  seated  himself  there  with  his  ministers.  Now  Abbaton, 
who  is  Death,  and  Gaios  and  Tryphon  and  Ophiath  and  Phthinon 
and  Sotomis  and  Komphion,  who  are  the  six  sons  of  Death, 
wriggled  into  the  tomb  of  the  son  of  God  on  their  faces  in  the 
form  of  serpents  ( ?),  wriggling  in  with  their  great  thief  in  very 
truth.  These  robbers  and  evil-doers  were  lying  in  wait  for  the 
moment  wherein  the  Saviour  would  go  down  into  Amente,  so  that 
they  might  enter  with  him  and  know  what  it  was  that  he  would  do, 

"And  the  Saviour  made  himself  manifest  unto  them  in  the  form 
of  a  dead  body  in  the  hinder  part  of  the  tomb ;  he  was  lying  upon 
the  ground  in  their  midst — now  it  was  the  second  day  that  he  was 
in  the  heart  of  the  earth,  and  there  was  a  napkin  bound  around  his 
face,  and  another  one  bound  around  his  head.  And  Death  said 
unto  his  son,  the  pestilence.  Hath  this  soul  which  hath  died  re- 
cently been  brought  unto  thee,  Amente  ?  Show  me,  for  I  am  dis- 
turbed greatly  by  this  terrible  quaking,  and  I  do  not  know  what 
hath  happened  this  day.  .  .  .  The  hours  have  been  shortened, 
the  nights  have  been  put  out  of  course  .  .  .  Gehenna  has  gone 
cold  .  .  .  Thou  hast  disturbed  me  exceedingly,  me  who  am  wont 
to  destroy  everything  (hast  thou)  destroyed.  .    .    . 


240    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"Then  Jesus  removed  the  napkin  which  was  on  his  face,  and 
he  looked  in  the  face  of  Death,  and  laughed  at  him." 

The  text  then  recounts  how  disturbed  Death  was  as 
he  looked  on  the  Savior,  falling  down  upon  the  earth 
with  his  six  sons,  and  acknowledging  him  to  be  "First- 
born of  the  Father,  the  Holy  Lamb."  It  tells  how 
Jesus  went  down  again  into  Amente,  breaking  in  pieces 
the  doors,  smashing  their  bolts,  and  dragging  away 
and  destroying  the  door-posts  and  frames,  and  ex- 
tinguishing the  fires,  putting  in  fetters  the  "shameless 
one."    It  closes  by  an  address  to  Judas: 

"Tell  me  Judas,  in  what  way  didst  thou  profit  by  betraying  me? 
Assuredly  I  only  endured  sufferings  of  all  kinds  in  order  to  fulfill 
(the  will)  of  my  Father,  and  to  redeem  (and  set  free)  my  creatures 
which  I  had  fashioned.  As  for  thee,  woe  be  unto  thee  with  two- 
fold woes." 

With  this  ought  to  be  compared  the  recently  dis- 
covered Conflict  of  Severus,  which,  however,  contains 
more  Scripture  quotations.  Severus  is  armed  with  the 
"Four  Holy  Gospels"  as  David  with  the  four  stones, 
and  could  cast  out  devils  by  merely  saying :  "The  Lord 
rebuke  thee."  In  the  triumph  at  its  end  "hell" 
(Amente)  was  destroyed;  paradise  was  laid  open  and 
the  tree  of  life  was  revealed;  the  heavens  became  the 
world,  the  world  became  heaven;  God  became  man; 
man  became  God.  A  final  prophecy  is  that  "Severus 
shall  cut  off  the  head  of  Satan."  ^*  This  curious  work 
contains  the  following  elaborate  declaration  of  faith : 

"We  believe  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Saviour  Lord,  with  the  Holy 
Lord,  three  substances  abiding  and  perfect,  three  substances  equal, 
undivided  in  glory  and  splendor,  one  likeness,  one  essence,  one 
power  and  one  worship,  one  faith ;  so  is  it  meet  for  believers  to 
believe." 

^  Patrologia  Orientalis,  Tome  iv,  Fascicule  6;  Edgar  J.  Goodspeed, 

Conflict  of  Severus,  1907. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       241 

Various  other  Coptic  stories  have  been  even  more 
recently  discovered,  among  which  may  specially  be 
mentioned  an  apocryphal  Acts,  in  which  Andrew  plays 
an  important  part."^  In  all  of  these  texts  hundreds  of 
Scripture  passages  are  quoted  or  paraphrased.  In  the 
above  we  have  been  able  to  give  only  a  mere  sugges- 
tion of  the  wealth  of  new  material  recently  brought  to 
light.'' 

Among  the  Syriac  apocryphal  works  perhaps  the 
most  important  is  that  which  includes  Mara's  testimony 
to  Christ,  first  translated  in  1872,  which  Harnack 
dates  soon  after  a.d.  165.  It  is  a  letter  written  to 
Marcus  Aurelius  by  IMara,  in  which  he  asks  what 
benefit  the  Jews  received  by  the  murder  of  their  "wise 
king,"  seeing  that  from  that  very  time  their  kingdom 
was  driven  away  from  them,  "yet  the  wise  king  did 
not  die  because  of  the  new  laws  which  he  enacted."  ^^* 

(4)    IMPORTANCE   OF  THESE   APOCRYPHAL   GOSPELS, 
ACTS,  ETC. 

Certain  reflections  must  occur  to  every  one  who 
reads  these  strange  narratives  coming  out  of  the  early 
centuries  so  near  to  the  time  of  Jesus. 

"' Crum,  Anecdota  Oxoniensia,  1913,  No.  14. 

''See.  for  example,  the  exhaustive  article,  "Gnostic  Apocrypha"  in 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics;  and  "Acts  (Apocryphal)"  in  the 
Dictionary  of  the  Apostolic  Church;  and  "Apocryphal  Acts,"  International 
Standard  Bible  Dictionary. 

"*' Quoted  with  the  correspondence  of  Abgarus  and  the  sentence  of 
Pontius  Pilate,  letters  of  Pilate  to  Claudius,  and  all  other  apocryphal 
literature  known  at  the  time  of  the  book's  issue  by  Bernard  Pick,  Extra- 
canonical  Life  of  Christ,  1903;  Apocryphal  Acts  of  Paul,  Peter,  John,  etc., 
1909.  See  also  on  Christian  apocryphal  literature  in  general  Encyclopcedia 
Britannica,  ii,  169-182;  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Apostolic  Church,  i. 
478-506;  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  Am.  ed.,  Vol.  VIII;  and  for  a  more  popular 
treatise,  J.  DeQuincey  Donehoo,  Apocryphal  and  Legendary  Life  of  Christ, 
1903. 


242     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

First,  every  unprejudiced  mind  must  be  imprest 
with  the  fact  that  the  canonical  gospel  narratives  differ 
almost  as  much  from  these  nearly  contemporaneous 
documents  as  Jesus  differed  from  other  men.  The 
difference  is  that  between  a  religious  history  and  a 
religious  novel. 

Secondly,  all  of  these  apocryphal  narratives  are 
demonstrably  later,  most  of  them  centuries  later,  than 
our  four  gospels,  and  rest  upon  the  written  or  oral 
gospel  teaching  as  their  basis.  They  contain  no  new 
essentials;  they  are  simply  additions  to  the  accounts  in 
our  gospels  and  assume  the  history  recounted  there. 
They  give  incidental  testimony  to  the  great  leading 
facts  affirmed  by  the  four  gospels  and  take  for  granted 
the  teaching  and  doctrines  of  the  New  Testament. 
They  witness  to  the  existence  of  our  gospels  by  multi- 
tudes of  quotations  more  or  less  exact;  they  witness  to 
the  facts  of  the  gospels  by  their  presuppositions;  they 
witness  to  the  truth  and  inspiration  of  our  gospels  by 
their  differences  in  content  and  style.  In  the  twenty 
or  more  so  called  gospels  referred  to  in  early  Christian 
writings,  some  of  which  have  now  been  recovered, 
there  is  not  one  new  parable  or  beatitude,  and  very  few 
new  sentences  worthy  to  be  placed  by  the  side  of  these 
plain  narratives  written  by  the  fishermen  and  other 
"ignorant  and  unlearned"  disciples  from  Galilee. 

Third,  these  new  discoveries  suggest  that  most  of 
the  so-called  "false"  gospels  were  not  wilful  falsifica- 
tions. They  may  well  have  been  written  by  men  who 
trusted  to  the  memory  of  aged  people  who  had  actually 
heard  Jesus  speak  or  had  listened  to  sermons  from  the 
apostles  or  their  successors.  Some  of  the  statements 
which  are  seemingly  most  ridiculous  may  have  arisen 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        243 

from  an  honest  misunderstanding  of  the  pictorial  or 
allegorical  language  in  which  the  events  were  described. 
No  one  can  think  of  the  Coptic  description  of  the 
resurrection  quoted  above  as  being  accepted  by  any  one 
as  a  literal  account.  The  author  of  it  accepted  the 
gospels  as  authoritative.  The  sermons  of  the  Copts, 
even  to  this  day,  when  uttered  by  men  of  eloquence  and 
passion,  are  full  of  these  same  vivid  allegorical  pictures. 
Native  Egyptians  do  not  think  or  speak  abstractly. 

Fourth,  these  discoveries  illustrate  the  material 
which  existed  in  considerable  quantities  before  our 
gospels  were  written  and  were  used  by  St.  Luke  (Luke 
1:1).  Men  talked  as  much  and  wrote  almost  as  freely  in 
the  first  century  as  now.  The  words  and  acts  of  Jesus 
made  a  great  stir,  and  therefore  hundreds  of  people 
either  took  notes  on  the  spot,  or  in  after  years  talked 
with  those  who  had  seen  the  events.  Local  incidents 
were  remembered  best  and  were  naturally  exaggerated. 
Let  the  facts  of  the  gospel  narratives  be  granted,  and 
it  is  perfectly  easy  to  see  how  in  later  years  not  only 
notes  from  private  diaries  would  become  important  but 
anecdotes  would  be  told  of  Jesus  not  always  having  a 
historical  basis,  and  that  popular  sayings  would 
naturally  be  attributed  to  him.  Would  not  the  grand- 
sons of  the  man  who  was  born  blind  or  who  had  been 
healed  of  a  withered  hand  tell  about  this?  Justin 
Martyr  and  others  may  have  had  good  authority  when 
they  gave  the  names  of  these  men  and  told  their  trade, 
and  gave  also  the  names  of  the  two  thieves  on  the  cross, 
and  of  the  centurion  who  had  charge  of  the  crucifixion, 
and  of  the  soldier  who  pierced  the  side  of  Jesus.  It  is 
not  incredible  that  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus  may  repre- 
sent  a   valid   tradition   when   it   declares    that    Pilate 


244    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"swore  by  the  sun"  that  he  found  no  fault  in  him,  and 
that  at  the  trial  not  only  Nicodemus  but  one  of  the 
lepers  that  Jesus  had  healed,  and  even  a  woman 
(Bernice)  and  several  friends  of  Jesus,  offered  their 
testimony.  When  Clement  of  Alexandria  quotes  Jesus 
as  saying,  "Ask  great  things,  and  the  small  shall  be 
added  unto  you";  when  Origen  quotes  him  as  saying, 
"For  those  that  are  infirm  was  I  infirm,  and  for  those 
that  hungered  did  I  hunger,  and  for  those  that  did 
thirst  did  I  thirst";  when  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews 
puts  in  his  lips  the  words,  "Never  be  joyful  except 
when  ye  have  looked  upon  your  brother  with  love"; 
when  the  Acts  of  Philip  reports  him  as  saying,  "If  you 
do  not  make  your  low  things  high  and  your  crooked 
things  straight,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  my  kingdom," 
and,  again,  "He  who  longs  to  be  rich  is  like  a  man  who 
drinks  sea  water;  the  more  he  drinks  the  more  thirsty 
he  becomes,  and  never  leaves  off  drinking  until  he 
perishes";  these  may  represent,  possibly,  valid  his- 
torical memories  carried  down  by  oral  tradition  from 
the  earliest  times. 

Fifth,  it  may  be  well  to  add  that  these  apocryphal 
gospels  never  were  rivals  of  our  four  gospels.  The 
new  discoveries  emphasize  the  fact  that  our  four 
gospels  were  the  only  gospels  ever  accepted  universally 
by  the  early  Church,  being  counted  authoritative  by 
Christians,  heretics,  Jews,  and  heathen.  The  discovery 
of  these  apocryphal  writings  only  confirms  the  good 
judgment  of  the  early  Church  which  set  apart  these 
calm,  candid,  judicious  documents  as  distinctively  "Holy 
Writings"  as  distinguished  from  all  others.  As  early 
as  the  second  century  they  were  accepted  as  par  ex- 
cellence the  authoritative  memoirs  and  stood  without 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       245 

rivals  (Harnack).  Nevertheless,  supplemental  narra- 
tives continued  to  be  used  in  local  churches  and  were 
sometimes  quoted  by  these  churches  or  their  ministers 
in  their  controversies  with  the  heathen  and  the  Jews. 

3.  Some   Famous   Ancient   Documents,   Recently 

Recovered,  which  Mention  or  Use  the 

New  Testament 

(l)    THE   apology   of   ARISTIDES 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1889  ^^^^  ^^-  J-  Rendel 
Harris,  of  Cambridge  University,  after  spending  several 
days  in  one  of  the  libraries  of  the  Convent  of  St. 
Catherine,  looking  over  the  ancient  Greek  manuscripts 
which  were  thrown  indiscriminately  into  large  chests, 
was  taken  one  morning  by  Galaktion,  the  librarian, 
into  another  part  of  the  convent,  where  a  door  closed 
by  a  large  rusty  padlock  was  thrown  open  and  a  narrow 
room  was  reached,  the  walls  of  which  were  lined  with 
oriental  books  in  the  Syriac,  Arabic,  and  Iberian  lan- 
guages. It  was  here  that  he  found  a  Syriac  translation 
of  the  long-lost  Apology  of  Aristides,  which  previously 
had  only  been  known  by  an  Armenian  fragment  pub- 
lished in  1878.'' 

While  the  Syriac  manuscript  is  only  of  the  seventh 
century,  this  new  discovery  represents  a  text  which  in 
its  substance,  according  to  all  scholars,  dates  to  the 
"Second  century.  Professors  Harris  and  Harnack  be- 
lieve this  "Apology"  or  argument  for  Christianity  to 
have  been  presented  to  the  Emperor  Antoninus  Pius, 
who  reigned  a.d.  138-161;  but  Dr.  J.  Armitage  Robin- 

"  For  other  details  see  The  Newly  Recovered  Apology  of  Aristides,  by 
Helen  B.  Harris,  pp.  8-25. 


246    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

son  accepts  the  claim  made  in  the  "Apology"  itself 
(which  is  confirmed  by  the  Armenian  version),  that 
it  was  addrest  to  the  Emperor  Hadrian  who  reigned 
A.D.  1 17-138.  If  the  latter  be  correct,  this  earliest 
extant  argument  for  Christianity  came  into  existence 
within  a  short  generation  of  the  apostolic  age,  and  its 
author  must  have  been  a  boy  when  the  Apostle  John 
died.  If  the  later  date  is  accepted  it  would  have  been 
written  about  as  far  from  the  death  of  St.  John  as  we 
are  from  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates  (see  p.  204,  note 
51).  All  agree  that  in  either  case  the  "Apology"  was 
probably  written  somewhere  between  a.d.  124  and  140. 

Aristides  was  a  philosopher  of  Athens,  and  he  is 
mentioned  by  Eusebius  as  a  contemporary  of  Quadratus, 
who  lived  so  near  to  the  lifetime  of  Christ  that  he 
declares  some  who  had  been  healed  by  the  Savior  "lived 
on  to  our  own  times."  ^^ 

"Aristides  the  philosopher  is  a  Christian  who  has 
preserved  the  philosophic  manner  and  probably  the 
philosophic  dress  with  a  view  to  future  service  in  the 
gospel.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  practise  of  not  a 
few  of  the  famous  second  century  Christians  to  attract 
an  audience  in  this  way.  Justin  certainly  did  so,  and 
almost  as  surely  Tatian;  and  if  these  why  not  Aris- 
tides?" (Harris.)  The  settled  condition  of  the  Christian 
faith  at  this  era  is  seen  from  the  way  Aristides  marshals 
his  argument.  "He  talks  of  angels  as  tho  all  men  knew 
them,  dashes  through  the  dogmatic  statements  of  the 
Church  as  tho  they  were  perfectly  familiar,  and  with- 
out a  word  of  preliminary  explanation  of  terms,  makes 
a  peroration  of  the  impending  judgment  day."  Dr. 
Harris  in  a  most  ingenious  way  has  restored  from  this 

^Hist.Eccl,  IV.,  3. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        247 

document  a  part  of  the  creed  of  the  Christian  Church 
of  that  era.^^ 

"We  believe  in  one  God,  Almighty, 
Maker  of  heaven  and  eartli : 
And  in  Jesus  Christ  his  Son 

Bom  of  the  Virgin  Mary 

He  was  pierced  by  the  Jews : 
He  died  and  was  buried : 
The  third  day  he  rose  again ; 
He  ascended  into  Heaven ; 

He  is  about  to  come  to  judge 


The  "Apology"  opens: 

'T,  O  king,  by  the  grace  of  God  came  into  this  world;  and 
having  contemplated  the  earth  and  the  heavens  and  the  seas  and 
beheld  the  sun  and  the  rest  of  the  orderly  creation,  I  was  amazed 
at  the  arrangement  of  the  world;  and  I  comprehended  that  the 
world  and  all  that  is  therein  are  moved  by  the  impulse  of  another, 
and  I  understood  that  he  that  moveth  them  is  God,  who  is  hidden 
in  them  and  concealed  from  them :  and  this  is  well  known,  that 
that  which  moveth  is  more  powerful  than  that  which  is  moved." 

He  goes  on  to  state  certain  facts  about  the  Creator: 

"He  is  incomprehensible  in  his  nature  ...  is  not  begotten, 
not  made ;  a  constant  nature  without  beginning  and  without  end, 
immortal,  complete,  and  incomprehensible :  and  in  saying  that  he 
is  complete,  I  mean  this,  that  there  is  no  deficiency  in  him  and  he 
stands  in  need  of  naught  but  everything  stands  in  need  of 
him  .    .    ." 

"He  has  no  name  ...  he  has  no  likeness  nor  composition  of 
members  .  .  .  adversary  he  has  none,  for  there  is  none  that  is 
more  powerful  than  he;  anger  and  wrath  he  possesses  not;  for 
there  is  nothing  that  can  stand  against  him  ...  he  asks  no 

*•  Texts  and  Studies,  I.,  25. 


248     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

sacrifice  and  no  libation  nor  any  of  the  things  that  are  visible; 
he  asks  not  anything  from  anyone,  but  all  ask  from  him." 

How  much  this  philosophic  statement  of  the  nature 
of  God  reminds  us  of  Paul's  sermon  at  Athens  which 
was  preached  perhaps  half  a  century  or  less  before  the 
birth  of  Aristides! 

He  next  discusses  the  four  races  of  men  in  this 
world,  "barbarians  and  Greeks,  Jews  and  Christians," 
and  then  makes  what  has  well  been  called  "the  first 
attempt  at  a  systematic  comparison  of  ancient  re- 
ligions." Idolators  he  subdivides  into  Chaldeans, 
Greeks,  and  Egyptians,  showing  the  worship  of  each 
of  these  to  be  erroneous  and  absurd.  The  Jews  he 
mentions  briefly  (Sec.  2)  as  descending  froiu  Abraham, 
and  later  (Sec.  14)  he  praises  them  because  they  say: 

"God  is  one  Creator  of  all  and  Almighty  .  .  .  and  they  imi- 
tate God  .  ,  .  for  they  have  compassion  on  the  poor  and 
ransom  the  captive  and  bury  the  dead  .  .  .  nevertheless  they  too 
have  gone  astray  .  .  .  their  service  is  to  angels  and  not  to  God 
in  that  they  observe  sabbaths  and  new  moons  and  a  Passover 
.  .  .  and  circumcision  and  cleanness  of  meats;  which  things 
not  even  thus  have  they  perfectly  observed." 

Aristides  then  proceeds  in  his  argument  before  the 
emperor  to  a  description  of  the  Christians.  He  begins 
(Sec.  2)  with  a  statement  which,  when  purged  of 
glosses  by  a  comparison  of  the  three  forms  in  which  it 
survives,  shows  a  striking  correspondence  to  the  second 
section  of  the  Apostles'  Creed : 

"Now  the  Christians  reckon  their  race  from  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ;  and  he  is  confessed  to  be  the  Son  of  God  most  high. 
Having  by  the  Holy  Spirit  come  down  from  heaven  and  having 
been  born  of  a  Hebrew  virgin,  he  took  flesh  and  appeared  unto 
men  to  call  them  back  from  their  error  of  many  gods ;  and  having 
completed  his  wonderful  dispensation,  he  was  pierced  by  the 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       249 

Jews  and  after  three  days  he  revived  and  went  up  to  heaven. 
And  the  glory  of  his  coming  thou  canst  learn,  O  king,  from  that 
which  is  called  among  them  the  Evangelistic  Scripture,  if  thou 
wouldst  read  it.  He  had  twelve  disciples  who  after  his  ascent  into 
heaven  went  forth  into  the  provinces  of  the  world  and  taught  his 
greatness,  whence  they  who  at  this  day  believe  their  preaching 
are  called  Christians." 

After  a  long  discussion,  showing  to  this  heathen 
king  the  error  of  the  heathen  who  think  sun,  moon  and 
stars  to  be  gods,  he  reaches  his  climax  in  ridiculing  the 
gods  of  Egypt,  who  worship  not  only  evil  deities  but 
beasts  and  creeping  things  and  even  garlic  and  onions 
and  other  plants. 

The  last  quarter  of  the  argument  consists  in  a 
beautiful  statement  of  the  Christians  who  not  only  have 
a  purer  theology  than  all  others  but  live  in  the  world 
as  if  they  were  a  different  race: 

"These  are  they  who  beyond  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  have 
found  the  truth;  for  they  know  God  as  Creator  and  Maker  of 
all  things,  and  they  worship  no  other  God  beside  him ;  for  they 
have  his  commandments  graven  on  their  hearts,  and  these  they 
keep  in  expectation  of  the  world  to  come.  .  .  .  (They  do  not 
commit  adultery  nor  fornication,  they  do  not  bear  false  witness, 
they  do  not  deny  a  deposit  nor  covet  what  is  not  theirs  .  .  . ) 
whatsoever  they  would  not  should  be  done  unto  them  they  do 
not  to  another  .  .  .  (they  do  good  to  their  enemies:  and  their 
wives,  O  king,  are  pure  as  virgins  and  their  daughters  modest 
.  .  .  and  they  walk  in  all  humility  and  kindness,  and  falsehood 
is  not  found  among  them  and  they  love  one  another  .  .  . )  he 
that  hath  supplieth  him  that  hath  not  without  grudging:  if  they 
see  a  stranger  they  bring  him  under  their  roof  and  rejoice  over 
him  as  over  a  brother  indeed,  for  they  call  not  one  another  brethren 
after  the  flesh  but  after  the  spirit.  They  are  ready  for  Christ's 
sake  to  give  up  their  own  lives ;  for  his  commandments  they 
securely  keep,  living  holily  and  righteously  according  as  the  Lord 
their  God  hath  commanded  them,  giving  thanks  to  him  at  all  hours 
over  all  their  food  and  drink  and  the  rest  of  their  good  things. 


250     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

.  .  .  (And  if  any  righteous  person  of  their  number  passeth 
away  from  the  world  they  rejoice  and  give  thanks  to  God,  and 
they  follow  his  body  as  if  he  were  moving  from  one  place  to 
another  ...  as  men  who  know  God  they  ask  from  him  petitions 
which  are  proper  for  him  to  give  and  for  them  to  receive  .  .  . 
but  the  good  deeds  which  they  do  they  do  not  proclaim  in  the  ears 
of  the  multitude,  and  they  take  care  that  no  one  shall  perceive 
them  .  .  .  but  their  sayings  and  their  ordinances,  O  king,  and 
the  glory  of  their  service  and  the  expectation  of  their  recompense 
of  reward  .  .  .  which  they  expect  in  another  world  thou  art 
able  to  know  from  their  writings.") 

When  we  remember  the  age  of  this  document  and 
its  official  character,  we  are  amazed  at  the  boldness  of 
the  claims  made  here  concerning  the  moral  character 
of  the  Christians — the  modesty  of  the  women,  the  kind- 
ness of  Christians  to  inferiors,  their  care  of  the  poor, 
their  assurance  in  prayer,  and  their  joy  at  death;  and 
we  are  also  much  imprest  with  this  appeal  made  to  the 
emperor  to  read  the  authoritative  "writings"  and  learn 
for  himself  concerning  the  new  "way."  The  writer 
continues : 

"For  truly  great  and  wonderful  is  their  teaching  to  him  that 
is  willing  to  examine  and  understand  it.  And  truly  this  is  a  new 
race  and  there  is  something  divine  mingled  with  it.  Take  now 
their  writings  and  read  in  them  and  lo !  ye  will  find  that  not  of 
myself  have  I  brought  these  things  forward  nor  as  their  advocate 
have  I  said  them,  but  as  I  have  read  in  their  writings  these  things 
I  firmly  believe  and  those  things  also  that  are  to  come." 

Our  author  then  tells  how  the  Christians  pray  for 
the  heathen  that  they  may  repent  and  have  their  hearts 
cleansed  and  their  sins  forgiven,  closing: 

"And  truly  blessed  is  the  race  of  the  Christians  more  than  all 
men  that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  Let  the  tongues  of  those 
now  be  silenced  who  talk  vanity  and  who  oppress  the  Christians 
and  let  them  now  speak  the  truth  .  .  .  Let  all  those  .  .  .  who 
do  not  know  God   .    .    .   anticipate  the  dread  judgment  which  is 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        251 

to  come  by  Jesus,  the  Messiah,  upon  the  whole  race  of  men.    The 
Apology  of  Aristides,  the  philosopher,  is  ended."  ^* 

(2)    THE   SHEPHERD   OF   HERMAS 

Down  to  1856  this  remarkable  apocalypse,  which 
was  accepted  as  divinely  inspired  both  by  Irenseus 
(c.  A.D.  1 15-190)  and  Origen  (c.  a.d.  182-251),  was 
known  only  from  translations  and  quotations.  In  that 
year  Tischendorf  discovered  about  one-fourth  of  the 
work  at  Mt.  Sinai  in  a  fourth  century  papyrus.  In 
1888  twelve  more  leaves  (third  century)  were  found 
by  Professor  Lambros.  In  1900  seven  more  leaves 
from  the  sixth  century  were  edited  with  the  Amherst 
Papyri  (Vol.  II:  p.  cxc)  and  several  more  scraps  were 
excavated  by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  at  Oxyrhynchus, 
tho  the  most  important  discovery  was  made  at  Assos 
when  a  seventh  century  manuscript,  containing  most  of 
the  parts  omitted  by  the  Mt.  Sinai  text,  was  brought  to 
light.^^  For  the  first  time,  therefore,  we  are  able  to 
take  a  complete  and  connected  view  of  this  ancient  work 
which  greatly  resembles  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress 
and  was  in  its  day  even  more  popular. 

Hernias,  who  may  have  lived  a.d.  90-100  (Salmon, 
Zahn)  and  certainly  not  later  than  a.d.  150  (Harnack, 
Lipsius),  had  originally  been  a  slave.  After  he  secured 
his  freedom  he  succeeded  well  in  business,  but  was  irre- 

^  For  full  Syriac  text  and  translation  of  above  bracketed  portion,  see 
J.  Rendel  Harris,  Texts  and  Studies,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  1-64;  for  a  corrected  text 
(represented  in  unbracketed  portion),  see  J.  A.  Robinson's  "Apology  of 
Aristides,"  Encyclopcedia  Britannica;  and  for  original  Greek  text  see  Texts 
and  Studies,  1:65-112.  The  close  relation  between  some  portions  of  this 
"Apology"  and  the  anonymous  Epistle  to  Diognetus  (second  or  third  cen- 
tury), which  has  been  known  from  the  sixteenth  century,  is  very  marked. 

"  Facsimiles  of  the  Athos  fragments  were  published  by  Kirsopp  Lake 
in  1907,  and  a  translation  into  English  was  made  from  these  Mt.  Sinai  and 
Athos  texts  by  C.  Taylor,  2  vols.,  1903. 


252     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ligious,  having  evidently  no  very  good  influence  upon 
his  family.  Having  at  length  lost  his  property,  he  was 
converted  and  became  intensely  religious,  as  the  strong 
moral  earnestness  of  the  book  makes  very  apparent. 
His  work  is  really  a  "Manual  of  Religion,"  tho  cast  in 
an  imaginative  form.  It  is  a  mighty  call  to  repentance 
addrest  to  men  who  can  well  remember  the  days  of 
persecution,  yet  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  swal- 
lowed up  by  business  affairs  and  riches  and  heathen 
friendships  and  many  other  affairs  of  this  world. 
Man's  sinfulness  is  powerfully  depicted,  but  over 
against  this  is  put  the  power  and  willingness  of  the 
Good  Shepherd  to  lead  his  sheep  to  repentance  and  a 
new  life.  In  order  to  make  forgiveness  possible  to  one 
who  has  sinned  after  baptism,  a  most  curious  explana- 
tion is  given  of  Heb.  6:6;  12:17,  after  which  the 
author  hears  the  "Angel  of  Repentance"  saying  to  him : 

"Go  and  tell  all  men  to  repent  and  they  shall  live  unto  God ; 
for  the  Lord  in  his  compassion  sent  me  to  give  repentance  to  all, 
tho  some  do  not  deserve  it." 

The  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  in  each  believer  is 
strongly  strest  by  this  ancient  Christian  author.  In- 
deed, he  does  not  always  discriminate  between  the 
Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  believing  that  the  human 
Jesus,  because  of  his  goodness  and  faithfulness,  had 
been  unified  with  the  Spirit  and  made  partaker  of  the 
divine  nature: 

"The  Holy  pre-existent  Spirit,  which  created  the  whole  crea- 
tion, God  made  to  dwell  in  flesh  that  he  desired  (Jesus).  This 
flesh  therefore  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  dvv^elt  was  subject  unto 
the  Spirit.  .  .  .  When  it  had  lived  honorably  in  chastity,  and 
had  labored  with  the  Spirit  and  had  cooperated  with  it  in  every- 
thing, behaving  itself  boldly,  he  chose  it  as  a  partner  with  the 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        253 

Holy  Spirit"  (Sim.  V:6).    "For  that  Spirit  is  the  Son  of  God" 
(IX:  I). 

While  this  may  sound  a  Httle  Hke  heresy,  yet  it  re- 
markably resembles  Paul's  statement:  "The  Lord 
(Jesus)  is  that  Spirit"  (2  Cor.  3:  17).  There  is  no 
thought  of  denying  the  deity  of  our  Lord,  but  this  is 
one  of  the  first  attempts  to  explain  how  Jesus  could 
have  been  completely  human  and  yet  have  become 
divine.'^"^ 

Hermas  shows  great  familiarity  with  the  Book  of 
James.  His  statement  of  Christian  duty  sounds  as  if  it 
could  have  been  written  by  that  practical  apostle.  After 
mentioning  the  necessity  of  faith,  fear  of  the  Lord,  love, 
concord,  righteousness  and  a  perfect  fast,  ''a  fast  from 
every  evil  word  and  every  evil  desire,"  he  urges  his 
fellow  Christians 

".  .  .to  minister  to  widows,  to  visit  the  orphans  and  the 
needy,  to  ransom  the  servants  of  God  from  their  afflictions,  to  be 
hospitable  ...  to  resist  no  man,  to  be  tranquil,  to  show  your- 
self more  submissive  than  all  men,"  etc. 

This  book,  as  several  scholars  have  strongly  pointed 
out,  witnesses  emphatically  to  the  worldliness  of  the 
Church  within  half  a  century  of  the  apostolic  age — but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  sins  which  he  condemns 
were  also  mentioned  by  Paul,  and  that  they  have  not 
yet  vanished  from  the  Church.  On  the  other  hand  it 
also  witnesses  to  the  love  and  benevolence  of  some 
church-members  in  that  era,  and  proves  that  the  funda- 
mental faith  of  that  earliest  post-apostolic  period  was 
sincere  and  thoughtful  and  fervent.     While  Hermas 

^"  Compare  my  explanation  of  the  above  text  given  in  Hastings. Z)ich'on- 
ary  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels,  II.,  495;  and  see  the  illuminating  review  of 
A.  Mitchell  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Apostolic  Church,  1916,  I.,  561-4. 
Very  much  of  the  above  discussion  and  that  which  is  to  follow  has  been 
adapted  from  this  latter  article. 


254     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

is  interested  most  in  experimental  religion,  yet  he  gives 
us  some  light  on  the  officiary  of  the  Church  in  his  day — 
mentioning  bishops,  elders,  teachers,  deacons,  prophets, 
and  ministers. 

Perhaps  our  greatest  present  interest  in  Hermas, 
however,  is  connected  with  his  confirmation  of  the 
authority  of  Scripture.  While  he  never  quotes  word 
for  word  any  New  Testament  book,  yet  he  "continually 
uses  Scriptural  words  and  ideas,"  and  was  certainly 
acquainted  with  all  the  gospels.^^  There  are,  indeed, 
several  statements  in  his  visions  which  refer  to  the 
gospels  as  having  been  "four"  by  divine  ordination, 
as  where  he  represents  the  Church  as  seated  on  a  bench 
which  has  four  feet  and  stands  firmly  "as  the  world  is 
held  fast  by  four  elements."  ^^  It  may  be  finally  added 
that  while  the  Church  is  pictured  by  this  ancient  be- 
liever as  a  tower,  he  represents  the  tower  as  being 
founded  not  on  Peter,  but  upon  the  "rock  of  the  Son 
of  God." 

(3)    THE   RING   OF    POPE    XYSTUS 

This  may  be  the  best  possible  place  to  mention  the 
above  famous  book  of  devotion,  which  was  widely  read 
and  highly  prized  in  Christian  circles  as  early  as 
A.D.  250,  and  was  undoubtedly  composed  "at  least  a 
hundred  years  earlier"  (Conybeare).  We  venture  to 
speak  of  it  as  a  new  discovery  because  recently  for  the 
first  time  it  has  been  rendered  into  English.^* 

With  the  exception  of  the  Pastor  of  Hermas,  which 

^'  This  was  proved  exhaustively  by  C.  Taylor,  Witness  of  Hennas  to 
the  Four  Gospels,  1892,  and  in  New  Testament  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers, 
1905,  pp.  105#. 

''Taylor,  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  p.  2Z,  gives  similar  statements  from 
Irenaeus  and  Origen. 

"With  critical  commentary,  by  F.  C.  Conybeare,  M,  A.,  London,  1910. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       255 

we  have  considered  above,  and  the  Acts  of  Pilate — with 
their  interesting  but  unreHable  "official  reports" — and 
perhaps  two  or  three  other  apocryphal  works,  such  as 
the  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,  no  other  Christian  work 
equalled  this  for  popularity  in  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries. 

Its  deeply  religious  tone  can  be  seen  from  its  open- 
ing sentences: 

"A  faithful  man  is  a  man  elect. 
"A  man  elect  is  a  man  of  God. 
"He  that  is  worthy  of  God  is  a  man  of  God. 
"He  that  doth  naught  unworthy  of  God  is  a  man  of  God. 
"Wherefore  if  thou  art  endeavoring  to  be  faithful,  do  naught 
unworthy  of  God. 

"Reckon  it  thy  best  purification  to  wrong  no  man." 

(4)    LOST  WORKS  OF  EARLY   CHRISTIAN    FATHERS 
RECENTLY    DISCOVERED 

Many  fragments  of  papyrus  and  parchment  have 
been  found  in  recent  years  giving  scraps  of  well-known 
productions  from  the  various  early  fathers;  but  it  is  a 
surprize,  indeed,  to  be  able  to  report  that  at  least  two 
lost  works  from  the  pens  of  two  of  the  most  celebrated 
men  of  ancient  Christendom  have  just  come  to  light 
after  being  buried  in  oblivion  for  unknown  centuries. 

Dr.  E.  J.  Goodspeed  in  The  Biblical  World 
(December,  191 5)  has  told  this  fascinating  story  and 
we  here  offer  an  adaptation  of  his  brilliant  and  com- 
prehensive summary. 

Iranceus,  Apostolic  Preaching 
In    1904    a    native    scholar    found    in    Erivan    in 
Armenia   an   Armenian   manuscript   containing   a   lost 
work  of  Irenseus,  In  Proof  of  the  Apostolic  Preaching. 


256    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Up  to  that  time  only  one  complete  work  of  Irenseus 
was  known  to  be  extant,  his  famous  treatise  Against 
Heresies,  written  about  a.d.  185;  but  here  there  was  re- 
stored to  us  a  large  book  which  no  one,  previous  to  this 
discovery,  could  ever  have  hoped  to  see.  Irenseus  was 
born  probably  at  Smyrna,  a  few  miles  from  Ephesus, 
within  half  a  century  of  the  traditional  date  of  St. 
John's  death,  and  enjoyed  the  instruction  of  Polycarp, 
who  was  a  pupil  of  the  holy  "presbyter."  ^^^  He  may 
have  accompanied  Polycarp  on  his  journey  to  Rome 
in  connection  with  the  Easter  controversy  (a.d.  154). 
At  any  rate  he  was  a  missionary  to  Gaul  and 
under  the  persecution  of  Marcus  Aurelius  (a.d. 
177)  he  witnessed  there  the  terrible  torture  and 
death  of  many  of  his  fellow  presbyters.  In  a.d. 
178  he  was  elected  bishop  of  Lyons,  and  for  the 
rest  of  his  life  this  greatest  man  and  most  superb 
scholar  of  his  generation  labored  with  pen  and  tongue 
for  Christianity.  His  writings  prove  conclusively  that 
in  the  churches  of  his  day  strong  emphasis  was  put 
upon  the  New  Testament  and  "Scripture";  upon  the 
Apostolic  Creed  and  episcopal  organization.  In  the 
work  previously  known  he  had  made  hundreds  of 
quotations  from  the  New  Testament  in  his  ardent 
defense  of  the  "faith  delivered  to  the  saints."  It  ought 
to  be  almost  awe-inspiring  for  any  devout  Christian  to 
read  a  new  literary  and  religious  work  from  the  pen 
of  this  "commanding  figure"  in  early  Christian  litera- 
ture. 

"The  newly  discovered  work,"  says  Dr.  Goodspeed, 
"was  evidently  addrest  to  the  laity.     It  sets  forth  in  a 

"■'  As  we  have  previously  stated,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  "pres- 
byter John"  of  Ephesus  can  any  longer  be  identified  with  the  Apostle  John. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        257 

simple  and  telling  way  the  apostolic  type  of  Christianity 
which  Irenaeus  maintained,  and  shows  its  agreement 
with  numerous  Old  Testament  prophecies.  Irenseus's 
usual  method  is  to  describe  an  incident  in  the  gospel 
story  and  then  quote  some  prophecy  which  he  thinks 
is  fulfilled  in  it.  The  work  shows  Irenaeus  at  the  task 
of  teaching  his  Gallic  flock  to  defend  their  Christian 
faith  in  all  its  aspects  by  appeal  to  the  Old  Testament. 
Many  New  Testament  books  are  reflected  in  it,  but 
here,  as  in  the  older  work  of  Irenaeus,  no  use  is  made 
of  Hebrews  or  Revelations,  and  it  seems  clearer  than 
ever  that  these  books  had  no  place  in  his  New  Testa- 
ment." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  second  century 
many  theologians  were  inclined  to  look  upon  Hebrews 
as  edifying  literature  but  not  as  inspired  Scripture,  and 
Irenaeus  may  have  seriously  objected  to  Revelation 
because  of  the  Montanist  controversy  which  made  so 
much  of  this  work.^^ 

Origen  on  the  Book  of  Revelation 

'Tn  July,  191 1,"  still  to  quote  Dr.  Goodspeed,  "Con- 
stantine  Diobouniotis,  a  Privat-Docent  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Athens,  sent  to  Berlin  a  copy  he  had  made  of  a 
short  work  on  the  Apocalypse  which  had  been  found 
in  a  tenth-century  manuscript  in  the  Meteoron  monas- 
tery in  the  north  of  Greece.  The  monastery  is  one  of 
those  so  picturesquely  situated  on  the  summits  of  the 
rocky  detached  pinnacles  of  the  Pindus  Mountains, 
which  have  to  be  reached  by  the  aid  of  basket,  rope, 
and  windlass.     The  commentary  was  anonymous,  but 

**  See  Mofifatt,  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  New  Testament, 
p.  498. 


258     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Diobouniotis  thought  it  might  be  the  work  of  Hippo 
lytus,  one  of  whose  treatises  had  already  been  found  in 
the  same  manuscript. 

"The  BerHn  scholars  at  once  recognized  in  it  a  work 
of  Origen,  the  founder  of  Christian  interpretation  and 
of  systematic  theology,  the  leading  theologian  of  Chris- 
tian antiquity,  and  the  father  of  ecclesiastical  science. 
Origen  was  the  most  voluminous  of  ancient  Christian 
writers.  Ephiphanius  says  that  he  left  six  thousand 
works,  but  this  enumeration  must  have  included  indi- 
vidual sermons,  lectures,  and  addresses,  as  well  as 
greater  works,  like  the  Hexapla,  which  was  so  huge 
that  it  was  never  copied.  Part  of  Origen's  prolificness 
was  due  to  his  friend  and  patron,  Ambrose,  who  sup- 
plied him  with  stenographers  and  secretaries  so  that 
he  might  have  every  facility  to  record  the  results  of 
his  studies,  and  so  eagerly  urged  him  on  in  his  work 
that  Origen  calls  him  his  'taskmaster'  who  left  him  no 
leisure  for  meals  or  rest. 

"These  thirty-seven  paragraphs  of  the  commentary 
on  Revelation  are  a  new  and  unexpected  legacy  from 
the  first  great  interpreter  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is 
true  that  it  had  not  been  known  that  Origen  ever  wrote 
a  commentary  or  even  a  set  of  scholia  on  Revelation. 
But  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  his  commentary  on 
Matthew  he  exprest  the  intention  of  producing  a  com- 
mentary on  it.  More  than  this,  the  commentary  on 
Matthew  was  one  of  the  latest  of  Origen's  works,  and 
falls  between  a.d.  245  and  249.  It  was  in  a.d.  249  or 
250  that  the  persecution  of  Decius  overtook  Origen, 
and  the  tortures  he  then  endured  eventually  resulted 
in  his  death  in  his  seventieth  year.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  these  comments  on  Revelation  may  have 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        259 

been  his  last  work  and  that  they  broke  off  before  the 
whole  book  had  been  covered,  because  the  outbreak  of 
the  persecution  interrupted  Origen  in  the  midst  of  his 
task." 

Letters  of  Ignatius 

No  one  connected  with  the  history  of  the  early 
Christian  Church  is  more  famous  than  Ignatius.  Ac- 
cording to  early  tradition  he  was  the  pupil  of  the  Apostle 
John  and  for  over  forty  years  the  contemporary  of 
Polycarp;  finally  being  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts  in 
the  Colosseum  at  Rome  somewhere  between  a.d.  105 
and  115.  Our  knowledge  of  him,  however,  up  to  the 
present  generation,  has  been  confined  to  a  few  short 
notices  by  Irenaeus  and  Origen  and  to  a  number  of 
epistles  which  claimed  to  be  from  him  but  the  author- 
ship of  which  was  disputed. 

Thanks  to  the  researches  of  •  modern  scholars, 
notably  Zahn  and  Harnack,  seven  (short  recension) 
epistles,  written  to  the  Ephesians,  Romans,  Philadel- 
phians,  etc.,  are  now  accepted  with  practical  unanimity, 
being  dated  by  a  majority  of  scholars  a.d.  110-117,  tho 
Harnack  prefers  a.d.  117-125.^^  This  brings  the  words 
of  Ignatius  almost  within  the  apostolic  age  and  gives 
to  them  a  tenfold  force.  What  is  it  that  this  earliest 
post-apostolic  teacher  believed  concerning  Jesus  Christ  ? 
This  is  his  creed: 

"Be  ye  deaf,  therefore,  when  any  man  speaketh  to  you  apart 
from  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  of  the  race  of  David,  who  was  the 
son  of  Mary,  who  was  truly  born  and  ate  and  drank,  was  truly 
persecuted  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  truly  crucified  and  died  in 
the  sight  of  those  in  heaven  and  those  on  earth  and  those  under 

"  See  R.  H.  Charles  and  others  in  Encyclopcedia  Britannica,  II.,  189 ; 
VII.,  393;  XIV.,  292-294;  XXII.,  20. 


26o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  earth;  who  moreover  was  truly  raised  from  the  dead,  his 
Father  having  raised  him,  who  in  the  like  fashion  will  also  raise 
us  also  who  believe  in  him — his  Father,  I  say,  will  raise  us — in 
Christ  Jesus,  apart  from  whom  we  have  not  true  life.  .  .  . 
There  is  one  only  physician,  of  flesh  and  of  spirit,  generate  and 
ingenerate,  God  in  man,  true  life  in  death,  Son  of  Mary  and  Son 
of  God,  first  passible  and  then  impassible." 

Ignatius  was  the  first  writer  known,  outside  the 
New  Testament,  to  mention  the  virgin  birth,  but  he 
lays  great  stress  upon  this.  He  describes  the  holy 
sacrament  as  the  "medicine  of  immortality,  and  anti- 
dote that  we  should  not  die,  but  live  forever  in  Jesus 
Christ."  His  view  of  the  supremacy  of  Christ  is  so 
clear  that  he  gladly  puts  him  even  above  the  Old 
Testament  itself,  saying:  "As  for  me  my  archives — 
my  inviolable  archives — are  Jesus  Christ,  his  cross, 
his  death,  his  resurrection  and  faith  through  him." 

When  we  read  such  words  from  this  comrade  of 
Polycarp,  we  are  glad  to  find  that  modern  discoveries 
of  new  Ignatian  texts,  as  gathered  from  the  Rainer 
Papyri  (K941 6-9422),  corroborate  fully  the  antiquity 
and  essential  purity  of  these  ancient  epistles.^^ 

4.  The  Didache  or  "Teaching  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles'' 

This  most  important  of  all  recent  discoveries  that 
touch  Church  history  and  doctrine  was  made  by  Bishop 
Philotheus  Bryennios,  the  "Tischendorf  of  the  Greek 
Church,"  in  the  library  of  the  Jerusalem  Monastery  of 
The  Most  Holy  Sepulcher  in  the  Phanar  of  Constanti- 
nople, and  was  announced  by  him  in  1875.  What  he 
found  was  a  collection  of  manuscripts  written  on  well- 

*^  So  Wessely,  Sitzungsherichte  der  phiJosophisch-historischen  Klasse 
der  kaiserlichen  Akadeniie  der  Wissenschaften,  Band  172,  Wien,  1913, 
pp.  1-70. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        261 

preserved  parchment  and  bound  in  one  volume  con- 
taining 120  leaves.  This  volume  includes  the  only  com- 
plete manuscript  of  the  first  and  second  epistles  of 
Clement  of  Rome  to  the  Corinthians  and  several  other 
works  beside  the  Didache;  but  the  latter  is  by  far  the 
most  valuable,  altho  it  is  less  than  ten  pages  in  length. 
Its  publication  in  1883  created  a  profound  sensation  in 
the  learned  world.  The  work  was  undoubtedly  genuine 
and  was  dated  by  all  scholars  as  the  oldest  church 
manual  in  existence.  It  was  written  in  Hellenistic 
Greek,  and  of  the  552  different  words  used  504  were 
to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament  (Harnack).  The 
date  at  which  the  manuscript  was  copied  by  Leon,  the 
humble  "notary  and  sinner,"  was  a.d.  1056,  but  the 
date  of  the  original  was  variously  placed  between 
A.D.  50  and  A.D.  160;  until  the  consensus  of  scholarship 
has  finally  decided,  with  comparatively  few  dissenting 
voices,  that  it  was  written  "before  rather  than  after 
A.D.  100." '' 

The  reason  for  the  special  excitement  concerning 
this  find  was  very  manifest.  Here  for  the  first  time 
could  be  obtained  the  long-desired  answer  to  many 
historical  questions  concerning  the  doctrine,  ritual,  and 
polity  of  the  earliest  Christian  Church.  What  did 
those  earliest  Christians  believe  concerning  God  and 
Christ  and  baptism?  Out  of  the  long-forgotten  past 
this  earliest  ritualistic  discipline  arose  to  speak  con- 
cerning the  habits  and  beliefs  of  the  primitive  Church 
at  a  time  when  it  was  "neither  Catholic  nor  Protestant, 


'^  So  Bartlet  in  Hastings.  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  V.,  449 ;  Professor  Har- 
nack, however,  does  not  date  it  earlier  than  a.d.  120  and  says  it  may  be 
later.  J.  Armitage  Robinson,  Journal  of  Theol.  Studies,  XHL,  339-356,  has 
advanced  certain  arguments  to  prove  that  the  writer  used  St.  Paul,  St.  John, 
and  St.  Luke,  but  attempted  to  conceal  his  obligations. 


262     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

neither  Episcopalian  nor  anti-Episcopalian,  neither  Bap- 
tist nor  paedo-Baptist,  neither  sacerdotal  nor  anti- 
sacerdotal,  neither  liturgical  nor  anti-liturgical";  yet  it 
claimed  to  convey  a  genuine  apostolic  doctrine  as  re- 
ceived from  "the  Lord,"  i.e.,  the  glorified  Christ 
(VIII:2;IX:5;XI:2,4,8;XV:4;XVI:  1,7^).  The 
best  edition  of  this  work  in  English  was  published  by 
Philip  Schaff  in  1886,  giving  the  Greek  text  and  English 
translation,  and  from  this  edition  we  now  quote  por- 
tions of  this  most  remarkable  manuscript  interjecting 
some  of  the  more  important  scriptural  parallels. 

THE  TEACHING  OF  THE  LORD  BY  THE  TWELVE 
APOSTLES  TO  THE  GENTILES 

Chapter  I 
The  Two  Ways — The  Way  of  Life 

1.  "There  are  two  ways,  one  of  Life  and  one  of  Death;  but 
there  is  a  great  difference  between  the  two  Ways. 

2.  "Now  the  Way  of  Life  is  this :  First,  Thou  shalt  love  God 
who  made  thee;  secondly,  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;  and  all  things 
whatsoever  thou  wouldst  not  have  done  to  thee  neither  do  thou  to 
another. 

3.  "Now  the  teaching  of  these  (two)  words  (of  the  Lord)  is 
this ;  Bless  those  who  curse  you,  and  pray  for  your  enemies,  and 
fast  for  those  who  persecute  you :  for  what  thank  is  there  if  you 
love  those  who  love  you?  Do  not  even  the  Gentiles  the  same? 
But  love  ye  those  who  hate  you,  and  ye  shall  not  have  an  enemy. 

4.  "Abstain  from  fleshly  and  bodily  (worldly)  lusts.  If  anyone 
give  thee  a  blow  on  the  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also,  and 
thou  shalt  be  perfect.  If  anyone  press  thee  to  go  with  him  one 
mile,  go  with  him  two ;  if  anyone  take  away  thy  cloak,  give  him 
also  thy  tunic;  if  anyone  take  from  thee  what  is  thine,  ask  it  not 
back,  as  indeed  thou  canst  not. 

5.  "Give  to  everyone  that  asketh  thee  and  ask  not  back,  for  the 
Father  wills  that  from  his  own  blessings  we  should  give  to  all. 
Blessed  is  he  that  gives  according  to  the  commandments,  for  he  is 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       263 

guiltless.  Woe  to  him  that  receives.  For  if  anyone  receives, 
having  need,  he  shall  be  guiltless ;  but  he  that  has  not  need  shall 
give  account  why  he  received,  and  for  what  purpose ;  and  coming 
into  distress  he  shall  be  strictly  examined  concerning  his  needs, 
and  he  shall  not  come  out  thence  till  he  shall  have  paid  the  last 
farthing. 

6.  "But  concerning  this  also  it  hath  been  said.  Let  thy  alms 
sweat  (drop  like  sweat)  into  thy  hands  till  thou  know  to  whom 
thou  shouldst  give." 

Chapter  II 

The  Second  Great  Commandment — Warning 
Against  Gross  Sins 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  quote  this  in  full  as  it  is 
an  expansion  of  the  second  table  of  the  decalog  with 
reference  to  prevailing  heathen  vices,  to  which  are 
added  points  of  warning  with  reference  chiefly  to  sins 
of  the  tongue.  Some  of  the  most  striking  command- 
ments are  as  follows: 

"Thou  shalt  not  use  witchcraft;  thou  shalt  not  practice  sor- 
cery ;  thou  shalt  not  procure  abortion ;  thou  shalt  not  speak  evil ; 
duplicity  of  tongue  is  a  snare  of  death ;  .  .  .  thou  shalt  not  hate 
anyone,  but  some  thou  shalt  rebuke,  and  for  some  thou  shalt  pray, 
and  some  thou  shalt  love  above  thy  own  soul  (or  life)/' 

Chapter  III 
Warning  Against  Lighter  Sins 

This  chapter  emphasizes  the  fact  that  anger  leads 
to  murder,  lust  to  adultery,  superstition  to  idolatry, 
lying  to  theft.  It  warns  against  quick  temper  and 
filthy  talk  and  astrological  practises  and  vain-glorious 
ambitions  and  continues: 

"But  be  thou  meek,  for  the  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth.  Be 
thou  long-suffering  and  merciful  and  harmless  and  quiet  and  good 
and  trembling  continually  at  the  words  which  thou  hast  heard 
.  .  .  the  events  that  befall  thee  thou  shalt  accept  as  good,  know- 
ing that  nothing  happens  without  God." 


264    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Chapter  IV 

Sundry  Warnings  and  Exhortations 

This  chapter  enjoins  duties  on  Christians  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Church,  commanding  them  to  honor  their 
minister,  who  speaks  to  them  the  word  of  God  "as  the 
Lord,"  and  continues: 

"And  thou  shalt  seek  out  day  by  day  the  faces  of  the  saints 
that  thou  mayest  rest  upon  their  words..  .  .  Be  not  one  that 
stretches  out  his  hands  for  receiving  but  draws  them  in  for  giving 
.  .  .  nor  in  giving  shalt  thou  murmur  .  .  .  thou  shalt  share 
all  things  with  thy  brother,  and  shalt  not  say  that  they  are  thine 
own ;  for  if  you  are  fellow-sharers  in  that  which  is  imperishable, 
how  much  more  in  perishable  things." 

It  commands  kindness  to  slaves  that  they  may  fear 
"him  who  is  God  over  you  both,"  and  commands  rever- 
ence and  fear  on  the  part  of  bondmen,  and  adds : 

Thou  shalt  hate  all  hypocrisy  and  everything  that  is  not  pleas- 
ing to  the  Lord  ...  In  the  congregation  (exxArioia)  thou 
shalt  confess  thy  transgressions ;  thou  shalt  not  come  to  thy  prayer 
with  an  evil  conscience.    This  is  the  Way  of  Life." 

Chapter  V 
The  Way  of  Death 

This    chapter    describes    the    way    of    death    by    a 

catalog  of  sins  which,  as  Dr.  Schafif  says,  "faithfully 

reflects  the  horrible  immorality  of  heathenism  in  the 

Roman  Empire"  {cf.  Rom.  i:  18-32).     It  is  significant 

that  the  "Synagog  Confession"  gives  the  lists  of  vices 

in  almost  the  same  order.     We  quote  in  full  the  first 

paragraph : 

"First  of  all  it  is  evil  and  full  of  curse;  murders,  adulteries, 
lusts,  fornications,  thefts,  idolatries,  witchcrafts,  sorceries,  rob- 
beries, false  witnessings,  hypocrisies,  double  heartedness,  deceit, 
pride,  wickedness,  self-will,  covetousness,  filthy  talking,  jealousy, 
presumption,  haughtiness,  boastfulness." 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       265 

The  chapter  closes  with  a  warning  against  those 
who  are  ''advocates  of  the  rich;  lawless  judges  of  the 
poor;  wholly  sinful." 

Chapter  VI 

Warning  Against  False  Teachers  and  the  Worship 

OF  Idols 

This  chapter  contains  a  passage  often  quoted  as 
the  foundation  of  the  practise  of  ascetism. 

"For  if  indeed  thou  art  able  to  bear  the  whole  yoke  of  the 
Lord,  thou  wilt  be  perfect ;  but  if  thou  art  not  able,  do  what  thou 
canst." 

It  also  Speaks  of  idol  oflferings  as  "a"  service  of 
dead  gods." 

This  closes  the  first  division  of  the  book — the  first 
"Way"  which  has  to  do  with  moral  precepts.  Many 
scholars  think  that  an  ancient  Jewish  work  has  been 
used  in  the  composition,  modified,  however,  by  the  in- 
sertion of  passages  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  etc. 
Dr.  Schafif  finds  thirteen  distinct  allusions  and  two 
quotations  from  the  Old  Testament  in  the  Didache  and 
forty-six  reminiscences  of  the  New  Testament,  includ- 
ing many  parallels  to  the  synoptic  gospels  and  at  least 
three  to  John's  gospel  (Did.  10:2;  cf.  John  1:14; 
Did.  9:2;  cf.  John  15:1;  Did.  9:2,  3;  10:2;  cf. 
John  15:  15).  He  also  sees  important  resemblances  to 
Jude  and  2  Peter,  but  no  acquaintance  with  the  pastoral 
epistles.  Professor  Harnack  acknowledges  five  quota- 
tions from  the  gospels  and  twenty-three  citations. 

The  second  part  of  the  Two  Ways  consists  of  pre- 
cepts relating  to  church  life.  The  first  four  chapters 
are  intended  as  "a  short  sacramental  manual  intended 
for  the  use  of  local  elders  or  presbyters,  tho  such  are 


266    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

not  named,  for  they  were  not  yet  a  distinctive  order  of 
the  clergy."  This  section  was  probably  added  to  the 
Two  Ways  before  the  edition  of  the  remainder.  It 
orders  baptism  in  the  threefold  name,  making  a  dis- 
tinction as  to  waters,  which  has  Jewish  parallels,  and 
permitting  a  threefold  pouring  on  the  head  if  sufficient 
water  for  immersion  could  not  be  had.  It  prescribes  a 
fast  before  baptism  for  the  baptizer  as  well  as  the  can- 
didate. Fasts  are  to  be  kept  on  Wednesday  and  Friday, 
not  Monday  and  Thursday,  which  are  the  fast  days  of 
"the  hypocrites."  Then  follows  the  Lord's  Prayer 
almost  exactly  as  in  St.  Matthew,  which  is  to  be  re- 
peated three  times  each  day.  Next  come  three 
eucharistic  prayers,  the  language  of  which  is  clearly 
marked  off  from  that  of  the  rest  of  the  book  and  shows 
parallel  with  the  diction  of  St.  John's  gospel.  They 
are  probably  founded  on  Jewish  thanksgivings,  and  it 
is  of  interest  to  note  that  a  portion  of  them  is  pre- 
scribed as  a  grace  before  meat.  As  in  Ignatius  and 
other  early  writers,  the  eucharist,  a  real  meal  of  a 
family  character  (lo:  i),  is  regarded  as  producing 
immortality  ("spiritual  food  and  drink  and  eternal 
life"),  and  none  are  to  partake  of  it  save  those  who 
have  been  "baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord" — an  ex- 
pression which  is  of  interest  in  a  document  which  pre- 
scribes the  threefold  formula.  The  next  section 
(XI-XIII)  deals  with  the  ministry  of  spiritual  gifts 
as  exercised  by  apostles,  prophets,  and  teachers.  Next 
comes  a  section  (XIV,  XV)  reflecting  a  somewhat 
later  development  concerning  fixt  services  and  ministry. 
The  eucharist  is  to  be  celebrated  every  Lord's  Day  and 
to  be  preceded  by  confession  of  sin.  The  book  closes 
(XVI)  with  exhortations  to  stcdfastness  in  the  "last 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       26^ 

days"  and  to  the  coming  of  the  "world-deceiver"  or 
anti-Christ,  which  will  precede  the  coming  of  the 
Lord."  ^' 

We  will  quote  only  special  sentences  from  these 
chapters. 

Chapter  VII 

Baptism 

1.  "Now  concerning  baptism,  baptize  thus:  having  first  taught 
all  these  things  baptize  ye  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the 
Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  living  water. 

2.  "And  if  thou  hast  not  living  water  baptize  into  other  water; 
and  if  thou  canst  not  in  cold,  then  in  warm  (water). 

3.  "But  if  thou  hast  neither,  pour  (water)  thrice  upon  the  head 
into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

4.  "But  before  baptism  let  the  baptizer  and  the  baptized  fast 
and  any  others  who  can ;  but  thou  shalt  command  the  baptized  to 
fast  for  one  or  two  days  before." 

Chapter  IX 

The  Agape  and  the  Eucharist 

With  perhaps  one  exception  the  three  prayers  given 
in  this  chapter  are  *'the  oldest  known  Christian  prayers 
after  those  in  the  New  Testament  .  .  .  they  furnish 
together  with  the  Lord's  Prayer  the  elements  of  a 
primitive  liturgy  .  .  .  they  are  very  remarkable  for 
their  brevity,  simplicity,  and  high-toned  spirituality, 
but  also  for  the  absence  of  any  allusion  to  the  atoning 
sacrifice  of  Christ  except  perhaps  in  the  mystic  mean- 
ing of  the  Vine  of  David'  and  the  broken  bread.  Not 
even  the  words  of  institution,  'this  is  my  body,'  'this  is 
my  blood,'  are  mentioned;  much  less  is  any  theory  of 
the  real  presence  intimated  or  implied.  The  prayers 
are  too  low  for  the  sacrament  and  yet  too  high  for  an 

**  See  for  further  analysis  Encyclopcrdia  Britannica,  VIII.,  201. 


268     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ordinary   meal"    (Schaff).      The   prayer    for   the   cup 
reads : 

"We  give  thanks  to  thee,  our  Father,  for  the  holy  vine  of 
David  thy  servant,  which  thou  hast  made  known  to  us  through 
Jesus  thy  servant ;  to  thee  be  the  glory  forever." 

The  prayer  for  the  broken  bread: 

"We  give  thanks  to  thee,  our  Father,  for  the  life  and 
knowledge  which  thou  hast  made  known  to  us  through  Jesus  thy 
servant ;  to  thee  be  the  glory  forever.  As  this  broken  bread  was 
scattered  upon  the  mountains  and  being  gathered  together  became 
one,  so  let  thy  church  be  gathered  together  from  the  ends  of  the 
earth  into  thy  kingdom,  for  thine  is  the  glory  and  the  power 
through  Jesus  Christ  forever." 

The  post-communion  prayer  is  given  in  chapter  X: 

"We  thank  thee,  holy  Father,  for  thy  holy  name  which  thou 
hast  caused  to  tabernacle  in  our  hearts ;  and  for  the  knowledge 
and  faith  and  immortality  which  thou  hast  made  known  to  us 
through  Jesus  thy  Servant ;  to  thee  be  the  glory  forever.  Thou, 
O  almighty  Sovereign,  didst  make  all  things  for  thy  name's  sake ; 
thou  gavest  food  and  drink  to  men  for  enjoyment,  that  they  might 
give  thanks  to  thee ;  but  to  us  thou  didst  freely  give  spiritual  food 
and  drink  and  eternal  life  through  thy  servant.  Before  all  things 
we  give  thanks  to  thee  that  thou  art  mighty ;  to  thee  be  the  glory 
forever.  Remember,  O  Lord,  thy  Church,  to  deliver  her  from  all 
evil  and  to  perfect  her  in  thy  love ;  and  gather  her  together  from 
the  four  winds,  sanctified  for  thy  kingdom,  which  thou  didst  pre- 
pare for  her ;  for  thine  is  the  power  and  the  glory  forever.  Let 
grace  come  and  let  this  world  pass  away.  Hosanna  to  the  God 
(Son)  of  David.  If  anyone  is  holy  let  him  come ;  if  any  one  is  not 
holy  let  him  repent.    Maranatha.    Amen." 

Altho  the  prophets  are  permitted  to  pray  in  any 
words  that  they  may  chose,  few  modern  prophets  could 
do  better  when  administering  the  sacrament  than  to  use 
this  most  ancient  communion  prayer.  An  impressive 
prayer  craves  the  unity  of  all  congregations. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        269 

Chapter  XI 
Apostles  and  Prophets 

The  "apostles"  here  are  evidently  traveling  evan- 
gelists or  missionaries;  and  the  "prophets,"  tho  they 
may  have  been  itinerants,  are  more  like  settled  minis- 
ters, being  entitled  to  support  and  being  the  "chief 
priests"  who  officiate  at  the  holy  sacrament.  The  in- 
struction given  to  these  apostles  is: 

"Let  every  apostle  that  cometh  to  you  be  received  as  the  Lord. 
But  he  shall  not  remain  (longer  than)  one  day  ...  if  he  remain 
three  (days)  he  is  a  false  prophet.  And  when  the  apostle  de- 
parteth,  let  him  take  nothing  except  bread  (enough)  till  he  reach 
his  lodging.   .    ,    .     But  if  he  ask  for  money  he  is  a  false  prophet." 

Of  the  settled  preachers  it  says: 

"Not  every  one  that  speaks  in  the  spirit  is  a  prophet  but  only 
if  he  has  the  behavior  {xovc,  tqokov^)  of  the  Lord  .  .  .  No 
prophet  that  orders  a  table  in  the  spirit  eats  of  it  (himself)  unless 
he  is  a  false  prophet  ...  if  he  does  not  practice  what  he 
preaches,  he  is  a  false  prophet  .  .  .  Whosoever  says  in  the 
spirit,  Give  me  money  or  any  other  thing,  ye  shall  not  listen  to 
him ;  but  if  he  bid  you  to  give  for  others  that  lack,  let  no  one  judge 
him." 

Chapter  XII 

Receiving  Disciples 

"Let  everyone  that  comes  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  be  received, 
and  then  proving  him  ye  shall  know  him  ...  if  he  wishes  to 
settle  among  you,  being  a  craftsman,  let  him  work  and  eat  (earn 
his  living  by  work)  .  .  .  No  Christian  shall  live  idle  among  you. 
And  if  he  will  not  act  thus  he  is  a  Christ-trafficker.  Beware  of 
such." 

Chapter  XIII 

Treatment  of  Prophets 

"Every  true  prophet  who  wishes  to  settle  among  you  is 
worthy  of  his  food  (i.e.,  "support")  .  .  .  therefore  thou  shalt 
take  and  give  all  the  first  fruit  of  the  produce  of  the  wine  press 


270    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

and  threshing  floor,  of  oxen  and  sheep,  to  the  prophets ;  for  they 
are  your  chief  priests.  But  if  ye  have  no  prophet  give  to  the  poor." 

Chapter  XIV 
The  Lord's  Day  and  the  Sacrifice 

It  is  noticeable  that  there  is  no  commandment  in 
this  document  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  and  that  already  at 
the  end  of  the  first  century  Sunday  is  the  sacred  day 
of  worship. 

1.  "And  on  the  Day  of  the  Lord  come  together  and  break 
bread  and  give  thanks,  having  before  confessed  your  transgres- 
sions, that  your  sacrifice  may  be  pure." 

2.  "Let  no  one  who  has  a  dispute  with  his  fellow  come  together 
with  you  until  they  are  reconciled,  that  your  sacrifice  may  not  be 
defiled." 

3.  "For  this  is  that  which  is  spoken  by  the  Lord :  In  every 
place  and  time  ofifer  me  a  pure  sacrifice,  for  I  am  a  great  'King, 
saith  the  Lord,  and  my  name  is  wonderful  among  the  Gentiles." 

Chapter  XV 
Bishops  and  Deacons 

The  early  age  of  our  document  is  seen  from  the 
fact  that  traveling  missionaries  and  prophets  are  given 
higher  rank  than  purely  local  officers,  such  as  bishops 
and  deacons.  Presbyters  are  not  mentioned  because 
the  word  bishop  is  used  in  the  same  sense  (as  in  i  Tim. 
3:  8-13  and  Phil.  1:1);  but  these  bishops  and  deacons 
"are  not  to  be  looked  down  upon  because  their  own 
special  functions  are  of  a  humble  order,  but  are  to  rank 
as  associates  of  their  more  gifted  colleagues"  (Bart- 
lett). 

1.  "Elect  therefore  for  yourself  bishops  and  deacons  worthy 
of  the  Lord,  men  meek  and  not  lovers  of  money  and  truthful  and 
approved ;  for  they  too  minister  to  you  the  ministry  of  the 
prophets  and  teachers." 

2.  "Therefore  despise  them  not,  for  they  are  those  that  are  the 
honored  (men)  among  you  with  the  prophets  and  teachers." 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       271 

Chapter  XVI 
Watchfulness  and  the  Coming  of  Christ 

1.  "Watch  over  your  life;  let  not  your  lamps  be  quenched  and 
let  not  your  loins  be  unloosed  but  be  ye  ready  for  ye  know  not  the 
hour  in  which  our  Lord  comes." 

2.  "But  be  ye  frequently  gathered  together  seeking  the  things 
that  are  profitable  for  your  souls ;  for  the  whole  time  of  your 
faith  shall  not  profit  you,  except  in  the  last  season  ye  be  found 
perfect." 

3.  "For  in  the  last  days  false  prophets  and  destroyers  shall 
be  multiplied,  and  the  sheep  shall  be  turned  into  wolves,  and  love 
shall  be  turned  into  hate." 

4.  "For  when  lawlessness  increases,  they  shall  hate  and  per- 
secute and  deliver  up  one  another ;  and  then  shall  appear  the 
world  deceiver  as  Son  of  God,  and  shall  do  signs  and  wonders, 
and  the  earth  shall  be  delivered  into  his  hands   ..." 

6.  "And  then  shall  appear  the  signs  of  the  truth:  first,  the 
sign  of  expansion  in  heaven ;  then  the  sign  of  the  voice  of  the 
trumpet ;  and  the  third  resurrection  of  the  dead.   ..." 

8.  "Then  shall  the  world  see  the  Lord  coming  upon  the  clouds 
of  heaven." 

Such  is  this  ancient  synopsis  of  the  official  teaching 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  Palestine  which  comes  to 
us  from  a  time  as  near  to  the  lifetime  of  those  who 
knew  the  last  of  the  apostles  as  we  are  near  to  those 
who  personally  knew  Abraham  Lincoln  and  General 
Grant." 

5.    LiBELLI 

When  Grenfell  and  Hunt  published  in  1904  a  Greek 
papyrus  in  which  could  be  read  the  actual  certificate 
given  by  a  Christian  living  about  a.d.  250,  stating  in 
set  form  his  recantation  of  Christianity,  the  Chris- 
tians  all   over   the   world   were    stirred   to   a    feeling 

*"For  an  extended  and  profound  analysis  of  this  document  with  full 
statement  of  all  the  literature  connected  with  it,  see  especially  Hastings, 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  V.,  438-451. 


272     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  horror.  As  early  as  1893  Dr.  Fritz  Krebs  had 
found  a  similar  certificate  among  the  papyri  of  the 
Berlin  Museum  and  two  others  had  appeared  a  little 
later;  yet  none  of  these  had  made  so  great  an  impres- 
sion, at  least  upon  the  English-speaking  world.  The 
statement  as  translated  by  the  discoverers  read  as 
follows : 

"To  the  superintendents  of  offerings  and  sacrifices  at  the  city. 
From  Aurelius  .  .  .  son  of  Theodorius  and  Pantonymis  of  the 
said  city.  It  has  ever  been  my  custom  to  make  sacrifices  and 
pour  libations  to  the  gods  and  now  also  I  have  in  your  presence 
in  accordance  with  the  commandment  poured  libations  and  sac- 
rifice and  tasted  the  offerings,  together  with  my  son  Aurelius 
Dioscuros  and  my  daughter  Aurelia  Lais.  I  therefore  request 
you  to  certify  my  statement. 

"The  first  year  of  the  Emperor  Caesar  Gaius  Messius  Quintus 
Trajanus  Decius  Pius  Felix  Augustus.    Pauni  20."  *^ 

Poor  Aurelius!  His  act  of  apostasy  is  known  now 
the  world  over. 

From  this  same  reign  of  Decius  (about  a.d.  250) 
have  since  been  discovered  a  number  of  others,  all 
having  the  same  set  form,  showing  that  a  stereotyped 
official  wording  was  used. 

By  the  time  Dr.  Charles  Wessely  published  his  great 
work,  Les  Plus  Anciens  Monuments  du  Christianisme 
ccrits  siir  Papyrus,  in  1907,  five  of  these  libelli  had 
been  recovered.  The  publication  in  the  same  year  of 
a  lihellus  issued  to  "Aurelia  Ammonous  Mystos, 
priestess  of  Petesouchos,  the  great  god,"  threw  a  new 
light  upon  the  possibilities  connected  with  the  use  of 
these  certificates.  Was  it  possible  that  Christianity 
had  grown  so  popular  that  everybody,  even  the  pagan 
priestesses,  were  suspected  and  forced  to  sign  these 

*^  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  IV.,  No.  658. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       273 

certificates?  Or  did  it  mean  that  this  woman  who  had 
originally  been  a  priestess  had  been  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  later  under  stress  of  persecution  had  sac- 
rificed to  the  gods — or  else  had  bribed  some  govern- 
ment officer  to  give  her  this  certificate  making  use  of 
her  former  title  in  order  to  procure  it?  The  latter 
seems  to  the  writer  a  natural  explanation,  since  we 
know  from  the  statement  of  the  early  Christian  fathers 
that  if  Christians  had  friends  among  the  government 
officials  or  could  part  with  a  sufficient  financial  induce- 
ment, it  was  not  impossible  to  obtain  a  signed  and 
witnessed  certificate  without  having  to  go  through  the 
damnable  ordeal  of  sacrifice.  This  newly  found  libellus 
suggests  also  that  some  of  the  men  who  previously 
signed^  these  certificates  may  not  have  been  apostate 
Christians,  but  may  have  been  heathen  falsely  accused 
of  being  Christians. 

In  191 1  Dr.  Paul  M.  Meyer  *^  published  the  Greek 
text  of  nineteen  libelli  from  Theadelphia,  in  the 
Egyptian  Fayum,  dating  from  June  12  to  July  14,  a.d. 
250,  all  being  relics  of  this  same  Decian  persecution. 
He  exprest  the  judgment  that  the  Roman  government  in 
this  persecution  was  less  concerned  to  hurt  Christianity 
than  to  check  what  was  considered  a  non-patriotic  re- 
fusal to  adhere  to  the  official  Roman  religion.  We  give 
below  translations  of  the  two  longest  and  most  com- 
plicated of  these  newly  published  documents : 

"To  those  chosen  to  have  charge  of  the  sacrifices  from 
Aurelia,  wife  of  (?)  Ammonarios,  from  the  village  Theadelphia, 
and  who  always  sacrifices  and  reverences  the  gods,  together  with 
the  children  of  the  Aurelians  Didymos  and  Nouphios  and 
Taat.  (?) 

"We  have  ever  continued  to  sacrifice  and  to  reverence  the 

"  Ab  hand  lung  en  der  Berl.-Akademie,  Phil.  hist.  Klasse,  No.  5,  p.  34ff. 


274     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

gods  with  the  children  of  the  Aurehans  Didymos  and  Nouphios, 
and  now  in  your  presence  according  to  the  orders  we  have  poured 
libations  and  have  sacrificed  and  have  tasted  of  the  sacrifices,  and 
I  demand  of  you  that  you  witness  this  with  your  signature  for 
me.    Farewell.     (No.  2.) 

(Another  hand)  "We  Aurelians  Serenos  and  Hermas  have 
seen  you  sacrificing. 

(A  third  hand)  "Erm(a)s  has  set  his  seal. 

(The  first  hand)  "The  first  year  of  the  Emperor  Caesar  Gains 
Messius  Quintus  Trajan  Decius,  Revered,  Fortunate,  August. 

"To  those  chosen  to  have  charge  of  the  sacrifices  from  Aurelios 
Euprodokios  (Euprodoktos?),  household  servant  of  Aurelios 
Apianos,  who  has  been  in  charge  of  the  sacred  rites  of  the  most 
illustrious  city  of  the  Alexandrians,  and  he  is  engaged  in  business 
in  .  .  .  Theadelphia,  ever  sacrificing  to  the  gods  and  now  in 
your  presence  according  to  the  commands ;  I  have  sacrificed  and 
poured  libations  and  have  tasted  of  the  sacrifices,  and  I  demand 
that  you  witness  this  with  your  signatures.    Farewell.     (No.  16.) 

(Second  hand)  "We  Aurelians  Serenos  and  Hermas,  have 
seen  you  sacrificing. 

(Third  hand)  "Hermas  (Seal). 

(First  hand)  "First  year  of  the  Emperor,"  etc.  (as  in  other 
example). 

Since  Dr.  Meyer's  list  was  published  Leclercq  *^  has 
lifted  the  number  known  of  these  strange  documents 
to  twenty-five — twenty  of  which  came  from  Theadel- 
phia— and  three  others  have  just  been  published  (191 5) 
from  the  Catalogue  of  Greek  Papyri  in  the  John 
Rylands  Library.  The  latter  all  came  from  Theadel- 
phia. The  first  of  these  (No.  112)  is  the  certificate  of 
A.  Souelis,  "whose  mother  is  Taisis,"  signed  as  wit- 
nesses by  A.  Serenus  and  A.  Hermas;  the  second  and 
third  certificates  coming  from  A.  Aouteis  and  A.  Iseitos 
Anoutos  and  signed  by  the  same  witnesses. 

Among  those  who  have  made   for   themselves   an 

*^  Bulletin  d'ancienne  litterature  d'archeologie  chretiennes,  1914,  pp.  57- 
60;  126-139;  188-201. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       275 

eternal  infamy  by  signing  other  papers  similar  to  the 
above,  the  writer  has  noticed  the  names  of  Horion; 
Charis ;  Alexandros ;  Kamis,  "who  was  seen  to  sacrifice 
by  A.  Serenus";  Serenis  Herod;  Tausis;  Thermouthe 
Melana;  A.  Diogenes,  son  of  Satabous,  "aged  about 
y2  years,  with  a  scar  on  his  right  eye";  A.  Syrus  and 
Paspes  his  brother,  and  Demetria  and  Serapias,  their 
wives;  and  A.  Demas,  whose  husband  signed  for  her, 
"she  being  illiterate,"  etc.,  etc. 

A  word  ought  perhaps  to  be  added  concerning  the 
Decian  persecution  from  which  all  these  libelli  have 
come.  Decius  was  not  a  monster  but  a  man  of  high 
aims.  He  sought  the  best  good  of  his  people,  but  his 
judgment  concerning  Christianity  was  wrong.  His 
idea  was  that  Rome  in  order  to  be  strong  must  have 
absolute  control  over  both  government  and  religion; 
and  as  this  one  religion  by  its  intolerance  of  all  rivals 
was  a  constant  menace  to  the  public  peace  and  author- 
ity, he  bitterly  antagonized  it.  He  recognized  its  claim 
of  world-wide  dominion;  and  instead  of  linking  the 
government  to  it,  as  its  ally,  he  set  out  to  conquer  it. 
It  was  the  greatest  political  mistake  of  his  reign. 
Trajan  (a.d.  112)  was  the  first  to  denounce  Christian- 
ity as  a  crime  against  the  State;  and  under  Marcus 
Aurelius  (about  a.d.  176)  informers  against  Christians 
were  allowed  to  take  the  latter's  property  when  con- 
victed; but  under  most  of  the  emperors  until  Decius, 
the  Christian  associations  were  permitted  registration 
as  "burial  clubs,"  tho  Septimus  Severus  (a.d.  202) 
issued  a  proclamation  against  proselyting.  Previous 
to  Decius  it  was  mostly  the  people,  not  the  upper 
classes,  who  opposed  Christianity;  but  the  nobles  by 
this  era  had  become  antagonistic  to  this  avowedly  demo- 


276     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

cratic  propaganda,  and  Decius  greatly  pleased  the 
heathen  Senate  by  putting  the  strong  arm  of  the  law 
against  this  movement.  Doubtless  both  Decius  and  his 
counsellors  believed  that  Christianity  was  opposed  to 
patriotism,  as  it  refused  worship  to  the  national  gods. 

When  this  persecution  began,  most  of  the  civilized 
world  had  been  evangelized;  but  success  had  made  the 
Church  luxurious  and  worldly.  Bad  as  this  persecution 
seems,  it  was  a  good  thing.  The  libelli  weeded  out  the 
tares  from  the  wheat.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  many 
who  are  affirmed  to  have  sacrificed  never  actually  did 
this,  as  it  was  counted  a  much  smaller  sin  to  bribe  an 
official  to  give  a  false  certificate  than  actually  to  sign 
such  a  document.  Some  of  the  more  ardent  Christians 
greatly  objected  to  the  ease  with  which  such  certificates 
could  be  obtained  and  the  ease  with  which  such  cowards 
were  readmitted  to  communion.^* 

It  will  be  noticed  that  almost  all  of  the  victims  of 
this  persecution  were  members  of  the  Aurelian  gens. 
It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  it  was  not  mere  conformity 
to  the  Emperor  cult  which  was  required,  but  a  positive 
and  public  sacrifice  made  to  the  "gods"  of  Rome.  A 
long  list  of  these  gods  and  goddesses  comes  to  us  from 
the  reign  of  Diocletian.  The  refusal  of  any  Christian 
to  worship  any  one  of  these  deities  assured  his  death. *^ 
Dr.  Meyer  has  been  understood  to  suggest,  in  his  fine 
work  which  we  have  previously  quoted,  that  these  cer- 
tificates were  required  only  from  Roman  citizens;  but 
several  instances  which  he  himself  gives  intimate  that 
no  such  limitation  was  made.     Certainly  servants  as 

**  See  for  further  particulars  J.  A.  F.  Gregg,  The  Decian  Persecution, 
1907. 

*'■  Anecdoia  Oxoniensia,  1913,  No.  22. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        277 

well  as  masters  were  required  to  give  this  pledge  of 
loyalty  to  the  state  religion. 

6.  Ancient  Christian  Sermons 

The  oldest_kiiown  sermon  was  discovered  by  Bryen- 
nios  in  the  Jerusalem  Monastery  and  published  in  1875. 
It  is  from  an  unknown  Greek  or  Roman  author  of  the 
middle  of  the  second  century  and  was  formerly  ascribed 
to  Clement  of  Rome.  It  is  an  interesting:  fact  that  he 
read  from  manuscript  and  addrest  his  hearers  as 
"Brothers  and  Sisters !"  He  was  an  exhorter  rather 
than  a  preacher,  but  had  the  root  of  the  matter  in  him, 
as  is  seen  from  the  fervent  doxology  with  which  he 
closes : 

"To  the  only  God  invisible,  the  Father  of  truth,  who  sent 
forth  unto  us  the  Saviour  and  prince  of  immortality,  through  whom 
also  he  made  manifest  unto  us  the  truth  and  the  heavenly  light. 
To  him  be  the  glory  forever  and  ever.    Amen."  ^^^ 

An  early  Christian  fragment  of  the  third  or  early 
fourth  century  contains  what  seems  like  a  paragraph 
from  an  early  sermon  on  "The  Spirit  of  Prophecy" : 

"Man  being  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit  speaks  as  the  Lord 
wills;  the  spirit  of  the  divine  nature  will  thus  be  manifest.  For 
the  spirit  of  prophecy  is  the  essence  of  the  prophetic  order,  which 
is  the  body  of  the  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  was  mingled  with 
human  nature  through  Mary."  '^^^ 

It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that  Tyconius  (fourth 
century)  seemed  to  have  been  the  first  preacher  in  the 
Western  Church  who  attempted  to  treat  of  the  meaning 
and  inspiration  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole.  In  his  "rules" 
he  tried  to  lay  down  a  scientific  method  of  interpreta- 

*'"' Patrologia  Apostolica,  I.,  111-143. 
""  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  1:5. 


278    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

tion;  and  altho  many  of  these,  as  found  in  his  newly 
discovered  work,  are  now  wholly  antiquated,  a  few  of 
them  sound  as  if  they  might  have  been  formulated  by 
some  ultra-conservative  professor  of  hermeneutics  in  a 
modern  theological  seminary.*® 

Liberius  was  one  of  the  most  celebrated  bishops  of 
the  Western  Church  in  the  fourth  century  (a.d.  352- 
366)  and  one  of  his  sermons  seems  to  have  been  most 
fortunately  resurrected  for  us  {Museon,  XX,  i). 
While  Lefort,  in  the  article  referred  to,  does  not  posi- 
tively guarantee  the  authenticity  of  the  homily,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  of  its  antiquity,  even  if  the  wrong 
name  was  anciently  affixt  to  it.  It  is  suggestive  that 
this  preacher  of  the  olden  time  fills  his  sermon  with 
Biblical  quotations  from  many  books  (Zech.  8:  19; 
Ex.  20:13-17;  Deut.  5:17-21;  Matt.  19:18;  Mark 
10:  19;  Rom.  13:  9;  2  Tim.  2:  21).  He  is  preaching  on 
the  forty  days  preceding  Easter  and  beautifully  says: 

"Lent  is  the  time  of  fasting,  of  pardon,  of  enfranchisement 
from  the  corruptions  of  earth.  Let  us  advance  to  the  struggle 
determined  to  rise  victorious;  the  idle  may  labor,  the  coward 
have  courage,  the  peaceful  become  warlike  in  these  days." 

One  of  the  very  celebrated  preachers  of  the  Eastern 
Church  in  the  third  century  was  Bishop  Gregory 
Thaumaturgus  (died  a.d.  270).  From  his  pen  we  have 
what  may  perhaps  be  called  the  "oldest  extant  Chris- 
tian sermon."  *^  It  is  a  Christmas  sermon  and  he  calls 
this  anniversary  "The  Festival  of  the  Birth  of  Christ 
our  God,  which  is  the  Beginning  of  Festivals."  The 
sermon  is  too  commonplace  to  be  quotable;  but  in  this 
respect   it   differs    from   one   on   the    same   theme   by 

*'See  Rules  of  Tyconius  in  Apocrypha  Anecdota,  F.  C.  Burkitt,  1904. 
*'  See  The  Expositor,  III.,  392-400. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        279 

Ananias  of  Shirak,  who  begins  his  Christmas  sermon 
in  the  following  flowery  fashion: 

"When  I  remember  the  disobedience  of  Eve  I  weep ;  but  when 
I  view  the  fruit  of  Mary  I  am  again  revived.  Deathless  by 
descent,  invisible  through  beauty,  before  the  ages  Light  of  Light ; 
of  God  the  Father  wast  thou  begotten  .  .  .  with  roses  and 
lilies  and  fragrant  wreaths  Christ  our  imperishable  Spring  hath 
come  unto  us  and  hath  filled  the  fair  garden  of  the  churches,  even 
the  seed  plots  of  our  hearts,  from  the  paradise  of  God."  *^^ 

Another  sermon  by  an  ancient  preacher  named  Mar- 
lochanis  (Father  John)  was  found  at  Mt.  Sinai  at  the 
same  time  that  the  Syriac  gospels  were  discovered. 
The  text  seems  to  have  been  "Feed  my  sheep"  (John 
21 :  16).    Some  of  the  most  striking  sentences  are: 

"The  sheep  are  the  men,  and  the  ewes  they  are  the  women,  and 
the  lambs  they  are  the  young  boys  and  the  little  girls.  Lo  thou 
seest  the  priest  of  the  people !  With  what  care  the  Lord  in- 
structed Peter,  saying  to  him,  not  once  but  three  times.  Feed  thou 
the  flock." 

A  far  more  remarkable  discourse  on  "Peter  the 
Rock"  comes  from  the  same  place.  It  is  a  most  elab- 
orate argument  that  the  Church  was  founded  not  upon 
St.  Peter  but  upon  Christ  the  Rock: 

"It  is  our  Lord  Jesus  the  Messiah  who  goeth  down  amongst 
the  dead,  and  hath  lordship  over  death,  and  cutteth  the  bonds  of 
Sheol,  and  breaketh  the  bars  of  iron,  and  leadeth  captivity  captive, 
and  goeth  up  in  glory.  And  I  will  show  you,  my  beloved,  upon 
the  New  Testament  and  the  OJd  .  .  .  other  foundation  a  man 
is  not  able  to  lay  outside  that  one  which  is  Lord,  that  which  is  our 
Lord  Jesus  the  Messiah  .  .  .  after  I  have  built  my  barns,  and 
gathered  my  fruits,  and  given  thee  the  keys ;  after  I  have  pre- 
pared the  fold  and  gathered  the  sheep — O  Petros,  thou  wast 
convicted  of  fault  by  Paulus  thy  colleague.  How  do  men  say 
that  upon  Petros  ...  I  have  built  (the  Church  which)  is  not 
shaken  .    .    .  O  Petros,  after  that  thou  didst  receive  the  keys 

""Ibid.,  III.,  161-173. 


28o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  heaven,  and  the  Lord  was  seen  by  thee  after  he  rose  from 
amongst  the  dead,  thou  didst  let  go  of  the  keys,  and  thy  wage  is 
agreed  with  thy  Master  when  thou  saidst  to  him,  Behold  we  have 
let  go  of  everything  and  have  come  (after  thee.  What  then  shall 
be  to  us?  And  he  said  to  him,  Ye  shall  be  sitting  on)  twelve 
thrones  and  judging  the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  after  (all  these  signs, 
O  Petros),  thou  wentest  away  again  to  the  catching  of  fish  .  .  . 
Thou  didst  deny  me!"    (Anecdota  Oxoniensia,  1896.) 

A  vast  number  of  these  ancient  homilies  have  been 
recently  recovered,  especially  those  delivered  by  the 
early  Coptic  preachers;  and  altho  they  in  general 
scrupulously  avoid  new  ideas  and  are  rather  painfully 
orthodox,  yet  a  few  of  these  may  be  quoted  to  ad- 
vantage. A  large  collection  of  sermon  MSS.  in  Coptic 
over  1300  years  old  has  just  been  published  by  Mr.  W. 
E.  Crum.^^  In  these  sermons  mystic  numbers  and  pic- 
torial language  are  prominent,  and  much  Scripture  is 
quoted.  The  topics  of  the  sermons  are  interesting,  the 
"Last  Judgment"  being  particularly  popular;  but 
"Charity"  and  the  "Good  Samaritan"  and  "Repent- 
ance" are  also  in  evidence.  Under  the  latter  topic  the 
preacher  gives  good  advice: 

"Hearken  unto  repentance,  she  that  cleanseth  such  as  are  old 
in  wickedness  .  .  .  O  Repentance,  pure  bread  which  nour- 
isheth  .  .  ,  fellow  unto  the  angels  of  God  .  .  .  But  the  rich 
man  is  like  unto  a  great  ship  whose  freight  is  heavy." 

One  sermon  is  on  the  death  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  the  rejoicing  among  the  angels  when  she  reached 
heaven,  still  another  is  a  very  rhetorical  Christmas 
sermon  which  emphasizes  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  (Acts  1:3),  and  the  fact  that  all  power  was 
given  to  the  Son. 

It   is   a   curious    fact   that   one   of   these    sermons 

.     *^  Anecdota  Oxoniensia,  Semitic  Series,  Part  XII,  1913,  No.  10. 


FOURTH  CENTURY  CHURCH  AT  RUVY£HA,   SYRIA 
Amcru-an  Expedition    (1899-1900) 


J 

iSg|j^^9||ff^li^^|H^ 

&ii^ 

|ga^;3(^H»>« 

^^f^^^^^^SHikemr  ->-      ■   i'-a 

-i^l^aikMH^.. -^Ki-^^^^ 

'^-aj-nv .  '•: 

-/  - 

^- 

.:^rrr^.^^_^^.^ 

CHURCH 


A.\D    JJAl'TISTRY    AT    KASR   liiLlSU,    SVKIA    (a.d.    431) 
Froin   r.iitler,    "Anrieiit   Arrhite(>ture   in   Syria" 


THE   CHURCH  Oi-    SS.  SERGILS  AND  liACCHUS  AT    UMM   IS-SURAB, 

SOUTH  SYRIA  (a.d.  489) 

From  Riitler,   "Ancient  Architecture  in  Syria" 


A  KOW  OF  CHRISTIAN   SHOPS  IX  THE  BAZAAR  AT  T.ATrDKH, 

XOKTIi   gVKIA    (.4tb    to   6ili  Century) 

Frcim    P.utlpr.    "Anricnt    Arrhitertiiro    in    Pvria" 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  TAVERN  OR  CAFE  IN   SERDJILLA,  SYRIA 

(A.D.  473) 

From  Butler,   "Ancient  Architecture  in  Syria" 


CHRISTIAN    HOUSE    AT    SERPJILI.A.    SYRIA 

(.Late  5th  or  Early  6th  Century) 

From  Butler,   "Ancient  Architecture  in  Syria" 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       2S1 

preached  in  the  cathedral  church  of  Alexandria  by  the 
patriarch  Damianus  has  much  to  say  of  a  recent  earth- 
quake (a.d.  589),  the  subject  being  "The  Terror  of 
Death."  We  possess  it  only  in  fragments,  but  it  speaks 
of  Jesus,  "The  greatness  of  thy  divinity  .  .  .  whose 
is  all  honor  and  all  blessing  .  .  .  the  true  Shepherd 
that  laid  down  his  life  for  the  sheep."  There  is  one 
remarkable  passage  in  which  the  mother  of  Jesus  is 
eulogized : 

"Hail,  Mary !  Pure  meadow  wherein  is  the  pearl  which  is 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  Holy  Virgin,  adorned  with  all 
knowledge  .  .  .  Thou  didst  nurse  him  that  shepherdeth  all 
creation.  He  that  giveth  food  unto  all  creation,  thou  gavest  himi 
milk  .    .    .   God  the  Creator  is  swathed  in  bandages." 

One  of  the  best  preserved  sermons  is  by  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  having  for  its  text  Romans  4:  15.  The 
preacher  brings  out  clearly  the  truth  that  transgression 
grows  as  knowledge  is  increased.  Our  transgression 
is  especially  great  since  not  only  the  prophets  but  the 
Son  of  God  have  spoken  unto  us.  Trtie  repentance 
comes  when  one  forsakes  sin.  His  yoke  is  easy  and 
his  burden  is  light.  Do  not  delay  repentance,  for  "thou 
knowest  not  that  thou  shouldst  live  until  thou  be 
old  .  .  .  hast  thou  established  a  covenant  with  death 
in  thy  youth?"  To  go  to  a  wizard  or  soothsayer  or 
to  be  a  fornicator  or  liar  is  to  give  up  Christianity. 

"A  Christian  that  shall  lie  in  anything  is  not  a  Christian. 
Faith  without  works  is  barren.  Thou  hast  received  baptism  and 
clothed  thee  with  Christ;  if  therefore  thou  strip  thyself  with  him 
through  thy  evil  deeds  then  hast  thou  made  thyself  barren  .  .  . 
if  thou  do  not  the  deeds  of  baptism  thou  hast  destroyed  baptism 
.  .  .  woe  unto  thee  if  the  sign  of  Christ's  death  be  not  found 
upon  thee,  which  is  his  cross  .  .  .  beat  thy  breast  saying,  T  have 
sinned.' " 


282     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Here  follows  a  statement  that  the  clergy,  too,  have 
sinned,  but  that  the  laity  have  not  been  intrusted  with 
the  souls  of  the  clergy  as  the  clergy  with  the  souls  of 
the  laity;  therefore  it  is  not  their  business  to  criticize 
their  minister.  He  closes  with'  an  exhortation  to  benev- 
olence : 

*'He  that  giveth  unto  a  poor  man  lendeth  at  usury  unto  God. 
Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  these  little  ones,  it  is 
unto  me  that  ye  have  done  it.  .  .  .  Verily,  my  beloved,  unless 
God  forgive  us  there  shall  not  a  single  one  from  this  generation 
be  saved  from  the  punishment  of  the  Son  of  God." 

Another  sermon  on  "The  Last  Judgment,"  by  a 
preacher  equally  revivalistic,  points  out  the  inability 
of  the  parent  to  aid  his  child  in  that  day;  and,  in  the 
midst  of  a  powerful  call  to  repentance,  the  preacher 
pictures  the  doom  of  the  lost  soul  who  in  the  midst  of 
his  torment  sees  his  friends  in  glory,  and  cries  out  as 
he  recognizes  his  father:  "It  were  good  if  thou  hadst 
not  begotten  me!" 

Other  sermons  preserved  elsewhere  which  have  re- 
cently been  brought  to  light "  illustrate  God's  vengeance 
on  sinners  by  stories  of  David,  Elijah,  and  Pharaoh, 
and  contain  homilies  against  the  "mischief-maker"  and 
clerical  "evil-doer."  This  ancient  preacher  warns 
against  the  man  who  elicits  confidences  only  to  repeat 
them  to  an  enemy,  thus  making  trouble,  declaring  that 
every  man  that  is  double-tongued  is  "estranged  from 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  until  he  re- 
pent." 

In  a  sermon  on  "Humility"  there  is  a  warning 
against  those  who  boast  of  "prayers  and  fastings  and 
great  asceticisms;  for  every  one  that  exalteth  himself 

*'  Coptic  Ostraca. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       283 

shall  be  humbled;  but  he  that  humbleth  himself  shall 
be  exalted.  .  .  .  Moreover  it  is  written  that  Jesus 
spared  not  to  visit  the  teachers  that  were  in  the  temple 
and  to  learn,  for  the  end  of  all  this  is  humility." 
Another  sermon  on  the  present  troubles  of  the  world 
points  out  that  these  troubles  "do  but  lightly  requite 
all  our  misdeeds."  One  sermon  particularly  notable, 
coming  as  it  does  from  such  an  early  era,  urges  that 
Christians  should  not  judge  each  other  in  non-essen- 
tials; for  some  Christians  are  called  to  celibacy  but 
others  to  "till  the  earth  and  sell  what  is  brought  in 
by  labor  ...  let  each  be  content  with  such  good 
works  as  he  is  able  to  perform  ...  in  which  there 
is  not  evil." 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  sermons  is  on  "Forgive- 
ness of  Injuries": 

"For  it  is  no  sin  to  continue  being  insulted;  but  it  is  wholly 
sinful  if  thou  requite  an  insult  with  insult.  For  is  it  a  sin  to  bear 
insult  in  silence?  Does  not  Christ  say,  Whosoever  smiteth  thee 
on  thy  right  cheek  turn  to  him  the  other  also  ?" 

Dr.  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  of  the  British  Museum, 
who  had  previously  published  very  many  of  these 
ancient  sermons,  in  1910  published  several  more  of 
most  unusual  interest.^"  These  sermons,  which  were 
long  and  well-developed  discourses  concerning  fasting, 
repentance,  the  end  of  the  world,  the  incarnation,  the 
purity  of  Susanna,  continence,  etc.,  were  found  in 
Egypt  by  some  peasants  in  a  stone  box  under  the 
ruins  of  an  ancient  Coptic  monastery  where  they  had 
been  hidden  years  ago.  Over  half  of  this  volume  of 
ancient  sermons  has  been  lost,  but  175  leaves  remain. 
The  book  itself  dates  from  the  seventh  century,  the 

^  Coptic  Homilies  in  the  Dialect  of  Upper  Egypt. 


284    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

sermons  being  those  of  preachers  most  of  whom  lived 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  The  book  showed 
evidence  of  having  been  read  for  many  years,  and  no 
doubt  constituted  a  standard  guide  to  Christian  doc- 
trine, being  read  to  the  monks  evening  by  evening. 

If  we  except  one  homily  which  antagonized  the 
"contemptible  dogma"  of  Nestorius,  we  have  here  a 
body  of  very  ancient  pulpit  orations  that  will  compare 
favorably  in  many  respects  with  any  volumes  published 
lately  in  America.  We  have  heard  so  much  of  the 
ignorance  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  clergy  that  it  is  a 
surprize  to  find  in  these  ten  sermons  over  300  Scripture 
quotations  and  allusions  from  almost  all  the  books  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  They  also  contain  many 
brilliant  rhetorical  figures.  They  will  appear  to  many 
to  be  extravagantly  orthodox,  but  they  are  at  any  rate 
"Scriptural"  and  evangelistic  in  a  marked  degree. 
Some  of  the  expressions  sound  very  much  as  if  these 
were  meant  for  "revival"  sermons:  "We  must  weep 
and  wipe  away  our  defilement  by  tears" ;  "Because  thou 
canst  not  be  a  vessel  of  gold  or  silver,  do  not  become 
a  log  of  wood  which  is  only  fit  for  fuel";  "If  the 
Psalms  are  in  our  mouths,  they  will  be  guarded  against 
the  entrance  of  the  Evil  One";  "Abstinence  from  sin 
is  the  only  true  abstinence,"  etc. 

Among  the  most  interesting  of  all  these  homilies 
is  one  by  St.  Athanasius  (fourth  century)  who  takes  as 
his  text  the  Parable  of  the  Laborers  (Matt.  20:  1-16), 
strangely  interpreting  it  to  mean  that  the  laborers  whom 
the  Master  hired  at  daybreak  were  Moses,  Aaron,  and 
Joshua;  those  hired  at  the  third  hour,  the  Judges, 
those  hired  at  the  sixth  and  ninth  hours  were  Samuel, 
David  and  the  other  prophets;  while  those  hired  at  the 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       285 

eleventh  hour  were  the  apostles  whom  the  Master  found 
idle  the  whole  day.  Why  were  they  idle?  Because 
"the  devil  found  that  he  could  not  hire  them,  for  they 
would  not  do  evil."  The  sermon  closes  with  the  very 
flowery  peroration: 

"And  now,  O  man,  come  and  embark  in  the  ship  of  salvation, 
which  is  the  faith  of  the  Church.  It  hath  two  steering  oars 
wherewith  it  is  guided,  and  these  are  the  Testaments;  whereon  if 
thou  shalt  meditate  they  will  bring  thee  unto  a  good  place  for 
tying  up  thy  boat.  It  hath  a  mast  which  is  the  cross  of  the  Lord ; 
a  rudder,  which  is  thy  hands  stretched  out  in  prayer  to  God.  It 
hath  a  sail  which  beareth  it  onwards,  that  is  the  power  of  God, 
which  directeth  thee  into  every  good  course.  It  hath  a  guiding 
pole,  which  is  the  bishop  in  the  church.  It  hath  a  helmsman  to 
steer  it,  who  is  Jesus,  who  directeth  the  course  of  the  universe," 
etc. 

Bishop  Proclus  in  the  fifth  century  (a.d.  434)  in  his 
inauguration  sermon  when  he  was  installed  as  arch- 
bishop, and  also  in  a  later  discourse  when  it  is  said 
Nestorius  was  present,  preaches  on  the  ''Deity  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  rejoicing  in  the  mystery  of  this  doctrine: 

"Which  is  the  greater  miracle?  The  heavens  raining  down 
bread,  or  God  taking  upon  himself  flesh?  Which  is  the  greater 
miracle?  The  sea  which  became  divided  that  thou  mightest  pass 
through  it,  or  the  virgin  who  ceased  not  to  be  a  virgin,  even  after 
a  passage  had  been  made  through  her?  Which  is  the  greater 
miracle?  The  rod  which  made  the  rock  to  become  a  lake  of 
water,  or  the  cross  which  cleansed  the  world  ?" 

After  quoting  the  law  and  the  prophets,  as  well  as 
the  evangelists  and  apostles,  to  prove  Christ's  deity,  he 
appealed  to  the  four  elements  at  the  time  of  the  cruci- 
fixion in  support  of  his  doctrine: 

"Heaven  declareth  that  he  was  God;  the  sun  saith,  'J^sus 
Christ  was  my  Lord' ;  the  earth  saith,  'He  whom  they  crucified 
was  the  Creator  in  human  flesh' ;  the  sea  saith,  'He  was  not  my 


286     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

fellow  servant' ;  the  temple  saith,  'He  who  was  crucified  was  God, 
who  was  worshipped  in  me  from  the  beginning' ;  the  grave  saith, 
'He  who  came  into  my  domain  was  the  Almighty.'  And  the 
angels  and  archangels  and  all  the  hosts  of  heaven  say,  'He  who 
was  crucified  was  the  King  of  Glory.'  " 

The  old  Egyptian  word  "Amente"  is  the  one  used 
in  these  sermons  instead  of  "grave,"  and  in  many 
cases  when  the  punishment  in  the  future  world  is  des- 
cribed, ancient  Egyptian  terms  and  ideas  are  used. 

To  the  writer  the  most  interesting  sermon  of  all  is 
one  by  Apa  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Csesarea,  upon  the 
Canaanitish  Woman  (Matt.  15:21^).  This  ancient 
preacher  begins  by  showing  how  the  wickedest  could 
get  to  Jesus  and  he  could  transform  them : 

"If  thou  art  a  tax  gatherer,  thou  hast  the  power  to  turn  thyself 
into  an  evangelist.  And  if  thou  art  a  thief,  thou  hast  the  power 
to  enter  into  the  paradise.  For  there  is  no  kind  of  sin  whatsoever 
which  repentance  will  not  do  away." 

He  continues  by  pointing  out  that  Jesus  is  a  great 
physician  who  loves  to  get  difficult  cases  so  that  he  can 
prove  his  power,  and  continues: 

"If  thou  hast  committed  sin,  make  haste,  stand  upon  thy  feet, 
be  sorry  and  let  thy  heart  eat  thee,  and  pour  out  thy  tears.  For 
did  not  the  sinful  woman  act  in  this  wise  ?  And  did  she  not  pour 
out  her  tears  and  lay  hold  on  repentance  ? 

"Now  Jesus  came  out  of  the  border  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and 
behold  a  woman  set  out  to  go  to  him.  The  evangelist  is  stricken 
with  wonder  and  saith,  'A  woman,'  i.e.,  the  strongest  weapon  of 
the  devil ;  the  mother  of  sin ;  the  beginning  of  wickedness ;  woman 
who  was  cast  forth  from  the  paradise !  This  is  woman  and  such 
is  her  nature. 

"Oh  what  strange  and  wonderful  works  are  these !  The  Jews 
fled  from  him,  but  the  woman  fled  to  him.  Consider  this  woman, 
who  made  herself  to  be  a  preacher  and  one  who  acknowledged 
the  government  of  God ;  for  she  said,  'Lord,'  which  was  the  con- 
fession of  his  divinity,    and    'Son    of    David,'  which  was  the 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       287 

acknowledgment  of  his  manhood;  'have  mercy  upon  me.'  Is  not 
this  act  hetter  than  every  other  act  in  this  world  ?  .  ,  .  She  did 
not  make  an  appeal  to  the  apostles  .  .  .  she  said,  *I  have  no 
need  of  men  to  make  him  come  to  where  I  am.'  And  why?  'Be- 
cause he  came  down,  and  took  upon  himself  flesh,  I  will  speak 
with  him  in  the  flesh.'  .  .  .  She  said :  'Have  mercy  upon  me ! 
for  this  reason  hast  thou  taken  upon  thyself  flesh,  and  hast  come 
forth,  and  hast  entered  into  the  world  for  the  sake  of  sinners 
like  unto  myself   .    .    . 

"He  answered  her  not  a  word.  The  sickness  increased,  but 
the  Physician  kept  silence.  The  blow  was  sharp  and  severe,  and 
the  Word  kept  silence.  The  Physician  held  his  hand.  What  is 
this  new  and  wonderful  matter?  Thou  didst  run  after  others 
and  did  say,  'Come  ye  unto  me.  I  will  heal  you.'  Yet  from  her 
who  ran  after  thee  thou  didst  run  away."   .    .    . 

He  then  quotes  the  passage  that  has  so  influenced 
modern  commentators  and  their  interpretation  of  this 
incident:  "I  was  not  sent  unto  any  except  the  sheep 
which  had  gone  astray  of  the  house  of  Israel" ;  but  the 
old  preacher  sees  that  this,  when  properly  understood, 
can  not  declare  that  Jesus  was  not  sent  to  this  woman : 

"It  was  for  this  very  thing  that  thou  didst  take  upon  thyself 
flesh ;  that  thou  mightest  do  good  to  a  certain  woman  who  is 
going  to  perish  ...  Or  didst  thou  come  into  this  world  only 
for  the  sake  of  the  Jews?  .  .  .  Wherefore  then  did  David  say, 
'Ask  of  me  and  I  will  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance, 
and  thy  dominion  unto  the  end  of  the  earth.'  Why  then  didst 
thou,  O  Lover  of  every  soul,  say  to  thy  disciples,  'Go  ye,  baptize 
all  nations  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  ?'  " 

This  ancient  preacher  points  out  that  Jesus  had  not 
refused  to  go  to  the  Roman  centurion  nor  even  to 
harlots ;  why  then  should  he  speak  as  if  those  who  were 
not  Jews  were  dogs  ?  And  he  properly  resolves  the 
difficulty  by  saying: 

"All  these  words  were  intended  to  shame  the  Jews  who  called 
themselves   'Children'  .    .    .   Make  thou  thyself  like  unto  this 


288    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Canaanitish  woman.  And  when  thou  goest  into  the  Church  of 
the  Persians,  and  of  the  Cuthaeans,  and  of  the  Hindoos,  and  of 
the  Moors,  thou  shalt  hear  Christ  saying  out,  'O  thou  woman, 
great  is  thy  faith.'  " 

It  is  a  most  astonishing  thing  to  find  this  early 
Christian  preacher  taking  this  broad  position  that  the 
Canaanite  woman  was  not  a  dog  but  a  child,  and  that 
Jesus  was  trying  to  teach  the  disciples  this  great  truth. 
This  sermon  alone  ought  to  be  enough  to  bring  an 
increased  respect  for  the  thinking  qualities  of  the 
primitive  Christian  ministers  who  preached  these 
sermons  nearly  1600  years  ago. 

A  preacher  by  the  name  of  Alexander  who  was 
archbishop  in  Alexandria  a.d.  313-326  has  some  sen- 
tences in  one  of  his  sermons  which,  whatever  may  be 
thought  of  its  author's  mechanical  theology,  can  rival 
in  eloquence  anything  by  the  leading  pulpit  orators 
of  America: 

"And  now,  O  soul,  sing  thou  hymns  of  praise  to  thine  own 
imperishable  God,  because  Christ  died  for  us  in  order  that  we 
might  live  with  him  forever.  Tho  he  himself  was  the  fabricator 
of  the  universe,  he  endured  patiently  and  allowed  himself  to  be 
begotten  in  the  womb  of  a  woman.  And  they  wrapped  in 
Swaddling  bands  him  that  had  been  arrayed  in  all  the  glory  of  the 
Father.  He  who  sat  on  the  chariots  of  the  cherubim  was  laid  in 
a  manger.  He  before  whom  the  seraphim  stand  in  awe,  ascribing 
glory  to  his  divinity,  and  who  sent  forth  wa.ters  from  heaven,  re- 
ceived baptism  in  the  Jordan  by  a  mortal  man.  He  upon  whose 
word  hang  the  seven  heavens  was  himself  hung  upon  a  cross  of 
wood.  He  gave  his  soul  for  the  soul  of  man.  He  gave  man  for 
man  and  his  death  for  our  death.  He  gave  his  blood  on  behalf  of 
all.  It  was  the  wicked  people  whom  he  loved  that  put  him  to 
death.  They  pierced  the  side  of  him  who  had  created  them.  They 
hung  upon  a  tree  him  that  had  hung  out  the  earth.  He  who  was 
the  Judge  was  judged.  He  through  whom  the  whole  universe 
liveth,  died.  The  grave  was  perturbed  when  the  Lord  went  down 
into  it.    He  despoiled  the  grave  and  made  himself  master  of  it. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       289 

He  burst  open  the  gates  of  brass.  He  broke  through  the  bolts  of 
iron,  and  he  took  the  souls  which  were  in  Amente  and  carried 
them  to  his  Father.  Death  fell  down  upon  the  feet  of  Christ, 
and  Christ  carried  him  away.  One  died  in  order  that  all  might 
rise  from  the  dead.  For  having  died  he  put  man  on  himself  like  a 
garment,  and  took  him  with  him  into  the  heaven  of  heavens ;  and 
man  became  one  of  one  with  him.  He  took  him  as  a  gift  to  his 
Father.  The  gift  was  not  gold,  neither  was  it  silver,  but  it  was 
man  whom  he  had  created  in  his  own  likeness  and  in  his  own 
image.    Glory  be  unto  him  for  all  ages  of  ages.    Amen." 

From  this  same  collection  we  give  one  more  ex- 
ample of  the  manner  in  which  these  most  ancient 
preachers  speak  of  Christ: 

"He  is  the  Light;  therefore  is  he  the  Sun  of  our  souls.  He 
is  the  Life ;  therefore  we  live  in  him.  He  is  HoHness ;  therefore 
is  he  the  slayer  of  sin.  He  is  Salvation  ;  therefore  it  is  he  who  hath 
purchased  the  whole  world  with  his  blood.  He  is  the  Resurrec- 
tion; therefore  it  is  he  who  hath  set  free  those  who  are  in  the 
tomb,  and  hath  made  them  new  a  second  time  by  his  blood.  He 
is  the  Way;  therefore  he  is  the  guide  to  his  Father.  He  is  the 
Door ;  therefore  he  is  the  guide  into  paradise.  He  is  the  Shepherd ; 
therefore  he  is  the  seeker  after  the  sheep  which  is  lost.  He  is 
the  Lamb ;  therefore  he  is  the  cleanser  of  the  world  from  its  im- 
purity. This  is  my  God ;  I  will  ascribe  glory  unto  him,  for  unto 
him  belong  glory  and  power  for  all  ages  and  ages.    Amen." 

In  the  above  references  we  have  not  attempted  to 
mention  all  the  newly  discovered  sermons,  but  prob- 
ably a  sufficient  number  of  quotations  have  been  given 
to  indicate  the  wealth  of  new  material  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  preaching  a.d.  250  to  a.d.  600.  How  im- 
possible it  would  be  in  any  such  work  as  this  to  review 
competently  the  entire  field  may  be  seen  from  the  fact 
that  over  forty  complete  sermons  of  Chrysostom 
have  been  found  written  in  Bohairic,  and  in  the  one 
convent  library  of  St.  Michael,  dug  up  in  19 10  and 
now  preserved  in  the  J.  P.  Morgan  collection,  there  are 


290     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

at  least  forty  other  sermons,  which  with  Acts  of  mar- 
tyrs, Lives  of  saints,  etc.,  were  regularly  read  to  the 
monks  at  various  times  during  the  liturgical  year. 
This  is  only  one  of  several  collections  recently  discov- 
ered. The  early  Christians  were  surely  great  sermon- 
tasters  ! " 

7.  Ancient   Prayers  and   Amulets 

The  oldest  written  prayer  of  post-apostolic  times 
was  recovered  by  Bryennios  from  the  ancient  mon- 
astery in  Jerusalem  in  1875,  being  found  at  the  close 
of  Clement's  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  Dr.  Philip 
Schafif,  in  a  very  thorough  analysis  of  its  contents,  says : 
"It  is  long  and  carefully  composed  and  largely  inter- 
woven with  passages  from  the  Old  Testament.  It 
begins  with  an  elaborate  invocation  of  God  in  anti- 
thetical sentences,  contains  intercession  for  the  afflicted, 
the  needy,  the  wanderers  and  prisoners,  petitions  for 
the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  a  confession  of  sin  and 
prayer  for  pardon  (but  without  a  formula  of  absolu- 
tion), and  closes  with  a  prayer  for  unity  and  a  doxology. 
Very  touching  is  the  prayer  for  rulers,  then  so  hostile 
to  the  Christians,  that  God  may  grant  them  health, 
peace,  concord  and  stability. "^^  A  few  sentences  from 
this  prayer  are  all  that  can  be  quoted  here: 

"Grant  unto  us,  Lord,  that  we  may  set  our  hope  on  thy  name, 
which  is  the  primal  source  of  all  creation;  and  open  the  eyes  of 

"  On  the  Morgan  collection  see  especially  Hyvernat,  Revue  Biblique, 
1897,  and  Journal  des  Savants,  X.,  174^^.  Some  newly  published  sermons 
of  interest  probably  equal  to  that  of  any  mentioned  above  are  those  of 
Shenoute  published  by  Maspero  and  Chassnat  in  their  Coptic  Texts,  Vol. 
IV.  (Cairo,  1911)  ;  but  the  writer  has  not  seen  this  work  nor  any  satis- 
factory account  of  its  contents. 

'^Church  History,  II.,  226;  for  the  Greek  text  of  the  prayer  consult 
Patrum  Apostolicorum  Opera,  edition  by  Von  Gebhardt  and  Harnack,  III., 
517;  and  for  English  translation  Lightfoot's  St.  Clement  of  Rome,  Ap- 
pendix pp.  376-379,  or  Schafif's  History,  II.,  228-229. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        291 

our  hearts  that  we  may  know  thee,  who  alone  abidest,  Highest  in 
the  highest,  Holy  in  the  holy;  who  layest  low  the  insolence  of 
the  proud ;  who  scatterest  the  imaginings  of  nations ;  who  settest 
the  lowly  on  high  and  bringest  the  lofty  low;  who  makest  rich 
and  makest  poor ;  who  killest  and  makest  alive ;  who  alone  art  the 
benefactor  of  spirits  and  the  God  of  all  flesh  .  .  .  Let  all  the 
Gentiles  know  that  thou  art  God  alone,  and  Jesus  Christ  is  thy 
Son,  and  we  are  thy  people  and  the  sheep  of  thy  pasture. 

"Save  those  among  us  who  are  in  tribulation ;  have  mercy  on 
the  lowly;  lift  up  the  fallen;  show  thyself  unto  the  needy;  heal 
the  ungodly;  convert  the  wanderers  of  thy  people;  feed  the 
hungry;  release  our  prisoners;  raise  up  the  weak;  comfort  the 
faint-hearted." 

One  sentence  concerning  the  rulers  may  be  added : 

"Grant  unto  them  therefore,  O  Lord,  health,  peace,  concord, 
stability,  that  they  may  administer  the  government  which  thou 
hast  given  them  without  failure  ,  .  .  that,  administering  in 
peace  and  gentleness  with  godliness  the  power  which  thou  hast 
given  them,  they  may  obtain  thy  favor." 

This  prayer  is  known  from  a  rather  late  copy,  and 
was  certainly  not  from  the  pen  of  the  Clement  who  was 
bishop  of  Rome  a.d.  92-101 ;  but  as  it  is  found  in  the 
oldest  extant  Christian  sermon,  which  is  confidently 
dated  by  all  experts  in  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, we  possess  in  it  an  unrivaled  treasure. 

A  Christian  prayer  (sixth  or  seventh  century) 
reads : 

"Grant  to  us  in  the  day  of  judgment  to  stand  near  thee,  O 
worthy  One  .  .  .  and  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  Father  saying, 
Thy  sins  are  forgiven.^^ 

About  a  century  earlier  than  this  a  Christian  woman 
concluded  her  written  prayer  with  a  quotation  of  the 
opening  words  of  the  Gospels  of  St.  Luke,  St.  Matthew, 

^  Amherst  Papyri,  IX. 


292     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

and  St.  John,  and  fortunately  this  prayer  has  been  pre- 
served to  us  in  the  original  handwriting." 

"Extend  to  me  rescue  .  .  .  from  the  horns  of  one  horned. 
...  To  my  brethren  in  the  midst  of  the  Church  I  will  sing  thy 
praise.  .  .  .  Good  One,  protect  thy  servant  .  .  .  her  redemp- 
tion from  all  weakness  that  has  to  do  with  her  spirit  through  the 
name  of  the  Lord  salvation.*^  Of  the  living  God,  inasmuch  as 
many  have  undertaken  to  set  in  order  an  account  concerning  the 
things  brought  to  pass  among  you,  the  book  of  the  generation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  ...  In  the  beginning  was  the  World,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  God  was  the  Word.t^  O  holy  Phokas, 
O  holy  Merkourius,  guard  thy  servant."  ►J* 

Another  Christian  prayer,  the  autograph  of  which 

is  1,500  or  perhaps  1,600  years  old,  reads: 

"O  God  Almighty,  who  madest  heaven  and  earth  and  sea  and 
all  that  is  therein,  help  me,  have  mercy  upon  me,  wash  away  my 
sins,  save  me  in  this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come  through  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  is  the  glory  and  the 
power  for  ever  and  ever.    Amen."  ^^ 

A  Greek  papyrus  in  the  Cairo  Museum  dating  from 

the  fourth  century  which  may  be  from  a  "Lost  gospel," 

but  which  is  in  part  written  in  the  form  of  a  prayer, 

reads : 

"Christ  ...  the  true  Word,  the  God  of  eternity  .  .  .  The 
blessed  Lamb  wherefore  souls  were  set  free  through  his  blood 
.  .  .  the  earth  rejoiced  because  the  enemy  departed  .  ,  .  Thou 
didst  give  freedom  to  the  creation-that  asked  for  a  Master,  Jesus. 
Thou  .  .  .  that  forgivest  sins  ...  we  call  upon  thy  holy 
name.'* 

Another    very    early    Christian    prayer    from    the 

Fayum  is  written  on  the  back  of   an   ancient   Coptic 

text: 

'T  pray  that  the  person  named  may  not  be  led  into  falling  but 
to  his  salvation ;  but  if  he  cannot  hear  that  which  is  said  for  his 

"Grenfell  and  Hunt,  Greek  Papyri,  No.  10696. 
^  Qxyrhynclius  Papyri,  Vol.  III.,  No.  407. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        293 

salvation,  may  it  be  for  a  judgment.  Jesus  himself  taught  that  his 
presence  was  for  a  judgment,  that  those  who  see  not  might  sec, 
and  that  those  who  see  might  become  blind.  The  very  word  of 
the  gospel  taught  that  Jesus  came  not  only  for  lifting  up  but  also 
for  falling  down.  .  .  .  See  that  these  words  be  not  spoken  for 
thy  fall." '' 

Gustave  Lefebvre  has  published  the  Greek  text  of 
several  Christian  prayers  which  are  of  deep  interest, 
altho  the  text  is  occasionally  very  obscure: 

"The  God  of  the  spirits  and  of  the  flesh,  the  one  that  has 
abolished  death  and  the  grave  (Hades),  the  one  that  has  freely 
given  life  to  the  world,  give  repose  to  the  soul  of  thy  servant 
Marianos   ...   in  the  bosom  of  Abraam  and  Isaac  and  Jacob."  ^^ 

"Lord,  grant  repose  to  the  soul  of  thy  servant  Thecla,  summon 
her  to  the  bosom  of  Abraam  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  feed  her 
upon  the  tree  of  life  and  hearing  {i.e.,  let  her  hear)  :  'Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  made  ready  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world.'  "  "* 

Another  private  prayer  of  unusual  value,  dating 
from  the  fourth  century,  has  just  been  published  by 
Dr.  C.  Schmidt: 

"Give  light  in  (by)  thy  consolation,  that  we  may  be  deemed 
worthy  of  the  glorious  teaching  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  ^^ 

"God  the  all-conqueror,  the  one  that  is,  that  was,  that  is  to  be, 
Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  remember  the  sleep 
and  the  rest  of  thy  servant  Zoneese,  the  most  devout  and  loving- 
the-commandments,  and  deem  her  worthy  to  tabernacle  through 
thy  holy  and  light-bearing  archangel  Michael,  in  the  bosom  of  the 
holy  fathers,  Abraam  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  because  thine  is  the 
glory  and  the  power  to  the  ages  of  the  ages.  Amen.  She  lived 
blessedly  seventy-seven  years  and  her  memory   .    .    . "  ^^ 

*  Bouriant,  Memoirs  de  la  mission  arch,  frangaise  an  Caire,  I.,  1889, 
p.  243. 

"Recueil  des  Insc.  Chret.  de  I'Egypt,  Cairo,  1907,  No.  64. 
'"'Ibid.,  No.  107. 

^  Neutestamcntliclie  Sttidien  fiir  G.  Heinrici,  1914,  p.  71. 
^°  Reference  mislaid. 


294    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

While  few  private  prayers,  outside  of  cemeteries, 
have  been  preserved,  we  have  many  pubHc  prayers  such 
as  this  coming  from  a  very  ancient  Greek  hbrary  re- 
cently discovered: 

"Glory  be  to  the  Father  and  to  the  Son  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Holy  is  God,  strong  and  undying;  have  mercy  upon  us,  save  us, 
Son  of  God,  our  Saviour.    Alleluia,  alleluia,  alleluia !"  ®^ 

Many  individual  prayers  from  poor  people  have 
been  found  written  on  pieces  of  broken  pottery,  and  a 
few  official  chinxh  prayers,  among  which  is  a  very 
ancient  invocation  used  in  the  primitive  Church  in 
preparation  for  the  kiss  of  peace: 

"Cleanse  us  from  all  deceit  and  all  malice,  and  make  us  worthy 
to  salute  one  another  with  a  holy  kiss,  that  we  may  partake  with- 
out condemnation  of  thine  immortal  and  heavenly  gift." 

It  is  very  noticeable  that  the  earliest  Christian 
prayers,  many  of  which  will  be  mentioned  later  from 
epitaphs  found  in  Christian  cemeteries,  quote  Scrip- 
ture more  freely  and  are  decidedly  more  spiritual  or, 
at  least,  less  mixed  up  with  superstitious  and  magical 
references  than  those  of  later  eras.  In  the  most  an- 
cient official  Christian  literature,  magic  is  mentioned 
only  to  be  attacked  as  an  error  of  heathendom  (Did- 
ache,  II,  2 ;  III,  4 ;  V,  i )  ;  but  among  the  lower  classes 
magical  expressions  probably  entered  into  Christian 
letters  and  prayers  from  the  earliest  period;  and  cer- 
tainly by  the  fourth  century,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  the  great  leaders  of  Christianity  protested  against 

*"  Coptic  and  Greek  texts  in  British  Museum,  H.  R.  Hall,  1905,  p.  S3. 
See  for  another  beautiful  Christian  prayer  of  third  or  fourth  century, 
Greek  Papyri  in  British  Museum,  No.  1189. 

*'  Crum,  Coptic  Ostraca,  No.  5. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        295 

the  adoption  of  superstitious  means  for  the  regaining 
of  heahh  or  the  recovery  of  lost  articles,  the  papyri 
show  that  this  was  very  common.  This  is  not  at  all 
surprizing.  The  fear  of  demons  had  for  centuries  ruled 
the  heathen  world.  A  special  charm  had  been  arranged 
against  every  possible  disease  and  dangerous  circum- 
stance. Curative  charms,  weather  charms,  love  charms, 
malevolent  charms,  meet  us  everywhere  in  the  heathen 
literature.  Christians  evidently  used  these  so  far  as 
they  were  not  against  their  religion,  tho  attempting 
to  exclude  everything  that  connected  them  with  idol- 
atry; yet  amethysts  were  preferred  for  rings  even  by 
Christian  nobles  and  bishops,  and  herbs  were  used  as 
charms  rather  than  medicine,  and  scarabs  and  other 
protective  tokens  were  not  infrequently  placed  in  Chris- 
tian graves.  The  name  of  Jesus  together  with  gospel 
texts  and  certain  liturgical  formula  were  early  used 
as  amulets,  and  by  the  sixth  century  the  sign  of  the 
cross  and  other  symbols  for  Christ  had  quite  widely 
taken  on  a  magical  import.  Several  of  the  early  fathers 
speak  of  the  Christian  women  wearing  diamond  editions 
of  the  gospels  round  their  necks  after  the  manner  of 
Jewish  tephillin,  and  the  papyri  show  us  the  Lord's 
prayer  as  one  of  the  most  common  devices  to  ward  of¥ 
evil.  Wilcken  and  others  have  published  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  Christian  amulets  from  the  sixth  century,  in 
which  prayers  to  God  and  the  local  saints  are  made 
against  the  demons  of  asthma,  croup,  hydrophobia,  in- 
sanity, indigestion,  witchcraft,  and  pain.  These  amu- 
lets often  end  with  the  Lord's  prayer.  A  beautifully 
written  Christian  relic  of  this  character  has  recently 
been  recovered  (1911)  from  Oxyrhynchus.  It  is  of 
thin  vellum,  dating  from  the  sixth  century,  and  con- 


296    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

tains  Matt.  4:23-24,   written  in  five  columns   in  the 
form  of  a  series  of  small  crosses/'" 

It  ought  not  to  be  expected  that  a  man's  ignorance 
shall  be  wholly  cured  by  Christianity.  While  the  early 
Christians  had  lost  their  faith  in  heathen  demons,  they 
often  expected  some  Bible  text  or  a  repetition  of  the 
omnipotent  "Name"  {cf.  Acts  4:7,  12)  to  do  for  them 
what  magical  charms  had  formerly  been  supposed  to 
do.  The  following  amulet,  published  in  191 1,  shows 
the  piety  of  an  ignorant  Christian  of  the  fifth  century: 

"In  the  beginning  was  the  Word  and  the  Word  was  with  God 
and  the  Word  was  God.  All  things  are  made  by  him,  and  without 
him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been  made.  O  Lord 
Christ,  Son  and  Word  of  that  Living  God,  who  healedst  every 
sickness  and  every  infirmity,  heal  and  regard  thy  handmaid 
Johannen."  ®^ 

Another  amulet  of  the  sixth  century,  published  in 
this  same  volume,  quotes  Matt.  4 :  23-24,  under  the 
suggestive  title,  "The  Gospel  of  Healing  according  to 
Matthew."  Christian  amulets  of  all  eras  ordinarily 
consist  chiefly  of  gospel  verses  strung  loosely  together. 

A  magical  text  of  the  fourth  century,  previously 
quoted,  more  fully  shows  the  common  form  of  divina- 
tion at  that  era  condemned  by  the  Christian  Church: 

"If  the  abdomen  quiver,  it  denotes  something  good  with  ad- 
verse talk ;  ...  if  both  parts  of  the  hips  quiver,  a  person  so 
affected  will  stand  in  the  grip  of  a  twofold  trouble."  .    .    . 

With  this  may  be  compared  the  modern  Jewish  in- 
cantations by  means  of  chanted  "Names"  in  the  syna- 
gog,^^^  and  the  following  Christian  gibberish  from  the 
fifth  or  sixth  century: 

•*  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  VIIL,  No.  1077. 

*"  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  VIIL,  1151. 

^*  Journal  of  Biblical  Archeology,  1916,  p.  221. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        297 

"Oror  plior,  Eloi,  Adonai,  lao  sabaoth,  Michael,  Jesus  Christ 
help  us  and  this  house."  ®^ 

It  may  be  that  a  very  curious  papyrus  of  the  third 
or  fourth  century,  which  contains  an  explanation  of 
some  of  the  most  powerful  and  comforting  Biblical 
names,  may  have  been  used  as  an  amulet  of  protection. 
We  give  this,  in  part  following  Dr.  Deissman's  trans- 
lation:'' 

"Arima,  Jesus ;  Jo,  Salvation ;  Ariel,  My  light  of  God ;  Azael, 
strength  of  God ;  Eli,  Eli  sabachthani,  My  God,  my  God,  to  what 
purpose  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  Judas,  Jao  confession ;  Jonathan, 
Jao  gift ;  Joseph,  Jao  addition ;  Jakin,  Jao  resurrection,"  etc.,  etc. 

Jews,  Christians,  and  heathen,  alike,  believed  in 
the  power  of  magical  names,  and  therefore  Hebrew 
archangels,  together  with  Greek,  Roman,  and  Egyptian 
deities,  appear  -most  confusedly  mixed  up  in  some  of 
these  conjurations.  In  the  great  magical  papyrus  of 
Paris,  olive  branches  are  placed  before  the  man  pos- 
sest  of  demons,  and  the  exorcist  standing  behind 
him  pronounces  over  his  head: 

"I  invoke  the  God  of  Abraham,  I  invoke  the  God  of  Isaac,  I 
invoke  the  God  of  Jacob,  Jesus  Christ  the  Holy,  the  Spirit  Son 
of  the  Father,  above  the  seven,  below  the  seven.  We  bring  lao 
Sabaoth,  whom  thy  power  scoffs  at  (beyond  others)  until  thou 
hast  exorcised  this  supreme  demon  Satan  who  is  in  him.  I 
exorcise  thee,  demon,  whoever  thou  art,  by  this  god,  Sabarbathiot, 
Sabarbathiouth,  Sabarbathioueth,  Sabaraphia."  ^^ 

In  the  Leyden  papyrus  the  method  of  making  a 
dream  (a.d.  300)  is  given: 

"Take  oil  in  the  left  hand  and  repeat  formulae  .  .  .  then  go 
to  bed  with  the  head  turned  toward  the  east.    Jesus — Anoubis."  " 

**  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  VIII.,  1152. 
"^  Light  from  the  East,  pp.  415,  416. 
"^Wessely,  Les  Plus  Anciens  Monuments,  No.  16. 
"  Ibid,  No.  18. 


298    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

An  even  more  elaborate  magical  formula  from  the 
third  century  gives  the  method  by  which  supernatural 
information  may  be  obtained: 

"Great  is  the  lady  Isis  .  .  .  take  twenty-nine  leaves  of  a 
male  palm  and  inscribe  on  each  of  the  leaves  the  names  of  the 
gods ;  then  after  a  prayer  lift  them  up  two  by  two  and  read  that 
which  is  left  at  the  last  and  you  will  find  wherein  your  omen  con- 
sists." '' 

Another  magical  formula  from  the  fifth  century, 
quoted  previously,  reads: 

"Fly,  hateful  spirit!  Christ  pursues  thee.  The  Son  of  God 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  have  outstripped  the  .  .  .  in  the  beginning 
was  the  Word  (John  i:  1-3  is  quoted  here).  .  .  .  O,  Lord 
Christ,  Son  and  Word  of  the  Living  God,  who  healest  every  in- 
firmity, heal  .  .  .  thy  handmaid  .  .  .  put  to  flight  all  fevers 
and  every  kind  of  chill  ...  on  thy  name,  O  Lord  God, 
have  I  called,  the  wonderful  and  exceeding  glorious  name, 
the  terror  of  thy  foes.    Amen."  ^^ 

The  most  curious  of  all  magical  prayers  has  just 
been  brought  to  light,  in  which  a  miserable  widow 
conjures  a  mummy  and  its  companions  against  her 
oppressor,  urging  them  to  cry  to  God  the  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost,  con-substantial  Trinity  ('Ofxooiiaiog), 
until  he  hear.  The  widow  most  fervently  appeals  to 
the  God  of  the  widow  and  Father  of  the  orphans,  to 
the  God  who  created  Adam  and  helped  Job: 

"I  adjure  thee  who  sittest  upon  the  chariot,  before  whom 
stand  a  thousand  and  ten  thousand  archangels  and  seraphim 
with  six  wings,  to  do  justice  against  Schenute,  son  of  Pamin,  that 
thou  mayest  slay  him  as  thou  didst  slay  the  85,000  Assyrians  in 
one  night;  that  thou  mayest  bring  upon  him  heat  and  cold  and 
jaundice ;  and  open  the  mouth  of  his  enemies  against  him ;  and 
when  he  flees  from  them,  may  he  flee  on  the  same  road  which  his 
pursuing  enemies  take !" 

'^  Ibid.  "N 0.886. 

''^  Oxyrhytichus  Papyri,  Vlll.,  1151.  -  - 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       299 

Then  she  invokes  the  mummy  that  it  call  night  and 
day  dear  across  to  another  land,  and  with  the  other 
mummies  cry  all  together  "that  which  stands  upon 
this  paper  until  God  hears  and  gives  us  justice  in 
haste,  Amen."  It  closes  with  an  Alpha  and  Omega, 
each  repeated  seven  times.^*^ 

Stars  of  five,  six  or  eight  points,  or  some  other 
symbol  to  bring  good  luck,  were  as  common  on  the 
door-lintels  in  Syria  in  the  early  Christian  period  as 
now.  Characteristic  inscriptions  found  on  Christian 
dwellings  in  the  sixth  century  are: 

"Christ's  is  the  victory.    Flee,  Satan !"  (a.d.  524). 
"Of  this  house  the  Lord  shall  guard  the  entrance  and  the  exit ; 
for  the  cross  being  set  before,  no  malignant  eye  shall  prevail."  " 

In  order,  impartially,  to  give  proper  credit  to  the 
ignorant  Christians  whom  we  have  just  been  quoting,  it 
ought  to  be  remembered,  first,  that  the  charms  which 
come  from  the  middle  ages  in  every  part  of  Europe,  and 
even  from  some  sections  to-day,  are  at  least  as  bad  as 
any  of  these;  second,  that  the  differences  in  favor  even 
of  these  most  superstitious  and  ignorant  Christians, 
when  their  prayers  are  compared  with  those  of  the 
heathen,  are  far  more  marked  than  the  similarities. 

A  prayer  which  has  been  common  in  certain  parts 
of  Europe  for  over  three  hundred  years  and  is  yet 
in  use  reads : 

"O,  Holy  Cross  of  Christ,  ward  off  from  me  all  sharp  repeat- 
ing words.  Ward  off  from  me  all  dangerous  weapons.  Holy 
Cross  of  Christ,  protect  me  from  all  my  enemies."  ''^ 

'"'  Beitrdge  sur  Forschung,  1915,  pp.  96,  97. 
"^m.  Journal  of  Archeology,  XXL,  137-141. 

''*  Ancient  Egypt  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Discoveries,  Davis  and  Cobern, 
p.  255. 


300    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  rubric  connected  with  this  prayer  declares: 

"They  who  shall  repeat  this  prayer  every  day  or  hear  it  re- 
peated or  keep  it  about  them  shall  never  die  a  sudden  death  nor  be 
drowned  in  water,  .  .  .  nor  shall  poison  take  any  effect  upon 
them."  " 

The  Jews  of  Jerusalem  are  to  this  day  accustomed 

to  write  out  prayers  and  leave  them  at  the  so-called 

Tombs  of  the  Judges,  as  the  Jews  in  Hebron  leave 

similar  prayers  at  the  Tomb  of  Abraham,  hoping  that 

the  ancient  saints  may  help  them  in  trouble.    A  typical 

Jewish  amulet  reads : 

"M.  M.,  son  of  Joseph.  May  he  grow  up  to  a  prosperous  life 
and  to  peace  with  male  issue  continually."  ^* 

Certainly,  as  compared  with  the  above,  the  ordinary 
early  Christian  amulets  take  on  a  more  dignified  ap- 
pearance, as  may  be  seen  from  a  typical  invocation 
found  in  a  magical  papyrus  owned  by  Dr.  Charles 
Wessely  and  dating  from  a.d.  300. 

'T  invoke  thee,  O  God  of  all,  whose  name  is  above  all  power 
and  authority  and  dominion  and  every  name ;  who  is  seated  above 
the  cherubim;  I  invoke  thee  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  thy  be- 
loved Son,"  " 

8.  Ancient  Christian  Hymns 

The  oldest  Christian  hymn  known  to  scholars  up 
to  the  most  recent  discoveries  dates  from  the  early  part 
of  the  third  century  and  comes  from  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria. It  has  long  been  known,  and  breathes  the 
most  devotional   spirit: 

"O  King  of  Saints,  all  subduing  Word  of  the  most  High 
Father,  Prince  of  Wisdom,  Support  of  sorrows  that  rejoicest  in 

""  For  additional   instances   of  the  same  kind,   see  London   Academy 
1893,  pp.  132-150. 

'*Am.  Journal  of  Biblicnl  Literature,  1903,  pp.  164-186;  1904,  p.  97. 
"Wessely,  op.  cit.,  No.  19. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       301 

the  ages,  Jesus,  Saviour  of  the  human  race,  Shepherd,  Husband- 
man, Hehn,  Bridle,  Heavenly  Wing  of  the  all  holy  flock,  Fisher  of 
men  who  are  saved,  catching  the  chaste  fishes  with  sweet  life  from 
the  hateful  wave  of  a  sea  of  vices,"  etc. 

Very  recently,  however,  a  number  of  fragments  of 
new  hymns  that  are  almost  or  quite  as  ancient  as  this 
standard  hymn  of  the  Church  have  come  to  light. 
One  of  the  first  of  these  to  be  discovered — found  with 
the  Logia  at  Oxyrhynchus — proves  to  be  over  1,500 
years  old,  and  resembles  the  hymn  of  Clement  in  a 
marked  way.  We  transcribe  a  few  lines  of  this,  follow- 
ing Grenfell  and  Hunt's  translation: 

"Hold  fast  the  hope  which  thou  hast  learned, 
Which  the  Master  determined  for  thee. 

"O  the  rest  of  the  sorrowful ! 
O  the  leaping  of  the  flame ! 
O  the  fire,  fearful  for  the  wicked ! 

"Glorious  are  the  ordinances  of  God, 
In  all  things  he  suffers   as  an  example 
That  thou  mayest  have  glorious  life. 

"The  Father  sent  him  to  suffer, 
Who  has  received  eternal  life. 
Who  has  received  power  over  immortality. 
In  order  that  thou  mayest  see  the  light  of 
eternity,"  etc.^^ 

Another  hymn  which  seems  to  have  been  a  favorite 
of  the  Gnostics  was  first  published  in  1871  by  Prof. 
William  Wright,  but  has  recently  been  re-edited.^^  It 
dates  probably  from  the  first  half  of  the  third  century. 
Its  pictorial  and  symbolic  language  is  especially  to 
be  noted. 

"  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  Vol.  I. 

"  By  Mr.  A.  A.  Bevan  in  Texts  and  Studies,  V©1.  V.,  Art.  3. 


302     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  SYRIAC  HYMN  OF  THE  SOUL 

"I  went  down  into  Egypt 
And  my  companions  parted  from  me ; 
I  betook  me  straight  to  the  serpent ; 
Hard  by  his  dwelling  I  abode 
(Waiting)  till  he  should  slumber  and  sleep 
And  I  could  take  my  pearl  from  him. 

"I  forgot  that  I  was  a  son  of  kings 
And  I  served  their  king ; 
And  I  forgot  the  pearl 
For  which  my  parents  had  sent  me ; 
And  by  reason  of  the  burden  of  their  .  .  . 
I  lay  in  a  deep  sleep." 

Then  his  father,  the  "King  of  Kings,"  sent  him  a 
letter  by  an  eagle,  the  king  of  all  birds : 

"Call  to  mind  that  thou  art  a  son  of  kings  ! 
See  the  slavery — whom  thou  servest ! 
Remember  the  pearl 
For  which  thou  didst  speed  to  Egypt ! 
Think  of  thy  bright  robe 
And  remember  thy  glorious  toga 
Which  thou  shalt  put  on  as  thy  adornment 
When  thy  name  hast  been  read  out  in  the 
lists  of  the  valiant! 

"I  remembered  that  I  was  a  son  of  kings 
And  my  free  soul  longed  for  its  natural  state. 
I  remembered  the  pearl 
For  which  I  had  been  sent  to  Egypt 
And  I  began  to  charm  him, 
The  terrible,  loud-breathing  serpent. 

*'And  I  snatched  away  the  pearl 
And  turned  to  go  back  to  my  father's  house, 
And  their  filthy  and  unclean  garb 
I  stripped  off  and  left  it  in  their  country. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        303 

'  "And  my  toga  of  brilliant  colors 

I  cast  around  me  in  its  whole  breadth ; 
I  clothed  myself  therewith  and  ascended 
To  the  gate  of  salutation  and  homage ; 
I  bowed  my  head  and  did  homage 
To  the  majesty  of  my  Father  who  had  sent 

it  to  me. 
For  I  had  done  his  commandments 
And  he,  too,  had  done  what  he  promised. 

"For  he  rejoiced  in  me  and  received  me 
And  I  was  with  him  in  his  kingdom." 

Another  Christian  hymn  written  in  the  form  of 
an  elaborate  metrical  acrostic  comes  to  us  from  the 
fourth  century :  ^* 

"Some  come  in  sheep's  clothing  who  are  inwardly  wolves, 

Seek  to  live  with  the  saints, 

Seek  to  receive  life,  seek  to  escape  the  fire. 
Hold  fast  the  hope  which  thou  hast  learned, 

Which  the  Master  determined  for  thee. 
God  came  bringing  many  blessings, 

He  wrought  a  triple  victory  over  death, 
Jesus  who  suffered  for  this,  saying : 

I  give  my  back  that  thou  fall  not  a  prey  to  death  .    .    . 
He  washed  in  Jordan,  he  Ajjashed  as  an  example. 

His  is  the  stream  that  cleanseth. 
God  said,  Feed  the  stranger,  the  stranger  and  the  helpless. 

That  thou  mayest  escape  the  fire. 
Oh,  the  fire !  fearful  for  the  wicked !   .    .    . 

Christ  is  the  crown  of  the  saints,  Christ  is  the  fire  for  the 
wicked  .    .    . 
Freely  hast   thou  come  under  grace,  listen  to  the  prayer  of  the 
poor. 

Speak  no  more  arrogantly.   ... 
Singing  psalms  with  the  saints   .    .    .  knowing  these  Scriptures, 

Thou  shalt  never  fear  death." 

''^Amherst  Papyri,  Part  I.,  No.  II, 


304     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Another  (sixth  to  eighth  century)  which  seems  to 
us  a  Httle  more  musical,  reads  somewhat  as  follows : 

"Cherubim  and  Seraphim,  the  many-eyed,  sing  the  thrice  holy 
hymn: 
Holy,  holy,  holy  art  thou  ! 
Thou  who  art  seated  upon  the  right  hand  of  the  Father, 
(Image)  of  the  Godhead,  take  not  thy  mercy  from  me."  ^^ 

Another  Christian  hymn,  one  or  two  centuries  older 
than  that  just  quoted,  is  in  acrostic  form,  having  a 
kind  of  refrain  after  every  fourth  line.  It  reads  in 
part : 

"Let  us  glorify  him  singing,  Glory  to  thee,  O  Lord ! 
Let  us  worship  him  and  say.  Glory  to  thee,  O  Lord. 

"The  Lord  is  risen  for  us,  the  Word  of  truth, 

Incarnate  of  the  unwedded  virgin, 
Let  us  extol  him  and  say,  Glory  to  thee,  O  Lord !"  ^^ 

A  great  many  short  hymns  used  in  the  Eastern 
Church  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  fifth,  sixth,  and 
seventh  centuries.  In  very  many  of  these  the  Virgin 
is  mentioned  with  great  honor.  Nothing  seemed  to 
astonish  the  early  Church  as  much  as  the  fact  that 
God  should  deign  to  come  to  earth  in  human  form, 
and  the  mystery  of  this  incarnation  induced  a  rever- 
ence for  the  ''Mother  of  God" — as  the  Virgin  was 
commonly  called  by  the  sixth  century — which  was 
often  extravagant  in  its  expression.  Yet  nothing  is 
clearer  from  these  earliest  hymns  than  that  the 
honor  given  to  Mary  was  due  to  the  high  theological 
concept  concerning  the  Son.  We  give  a  number  of  short 
hymns  from  this  early  period,  showing  the  thought  of 

'"  Ibid.,  Part  I.,  No.  IX. 

^  Catalogue  of  Greek  Papyri  in  the  John  Rylands  Library,  Vol.  I,  7. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        305 

that  early  Church  concerning  Christ  and  his  salvation.^^ 
The  opening  hymns  given  here  were  sung  before  read- 
ing the  gospel  at  the  kiss  of  peace: 

"Sing  a  song  of  joy,  ye  people,  that  Christ  is  born, 
]\Iade  flesh  from  a  virgin  to  save  us 
And  to  glorify  thy  name,  O  Lord. 

"Blessed  art  thou  upon  the  throne  of  thy  kingdom, 
And  much  to  be  extolled  and  exalted  for  ever  more." 

At   another   feast,   perhaps    the   purification,   these 
hymns  were  used: 

"Hail  Alary,  favored  one ! 
The  Lord  is  with  thee,  and  the  Holy  Spirit. 

"Thy  priests  shall  clothe  themselves  with  righteousness, 
And  thy  holy  ones  shall  rejoice  with  much  rejoicing. 
Because  of  David,  thy  servant,  O  Lord. 

"Hail  Mary,  glorious  Virgin,  gifted  with  grace! 
The  Lord  is  with  thee. 
Blessed  art  thou  among  women, 
And  blessed  is  the  fruit  of  thy  womb, 
Because  thou  hast  received  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
The  nourisher  of  our  souls." 

Some  of  the  most  impressive  among  these  early  pro- 
ductions are  the  post-communion  anthems: 

"Heavenly  bread  he  gave  to  them, 
And  a  human  being  ate  the  bread  of  angels ! 

"Blessed  bread  have  we  received. 
The  body  of  our  Lord  and  his  precious  blood. 

"  The  Greek  texts  of  these  hymns  can  be  found  in  the  early  pages  of 
Crum's  Coptic  Ostraca. 


306     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"Having  received  holy  bread,  let  us  bless  God, 
The  One  doing  marvelous    things  throughout  the 
whole  earth. 


"We  give  thanks  to  thee,  Christ  our  God, 
Because  thou  hast  deemed  us  worthy  to  partake  of 
thy  body  and  blood." 

One  specially  impressive  chant  preserved  in  several 
Greek  texts  reads: 

"O  thou  who  once  spoke  to  Moses  in  Mt.  Sinai, 
Now  from  a  spotless  Virgin  hast  received  a  form  of  flesh  free 
from  all  sin. 

"O  thou  who  didst  nourish  Israel, 
Now  thou  hast  been  fed  on  milk  from  a  mother  who  knew  not 

marriage, 
O  marvelous  One ! 

"Oh  thou  who  once  smote  kings. 
Now  in  Egypt  has  thou  escaped  a  king. 

"Thou  that  sittest  upon  a  lofty,  exalted  throne. 
Thou  wast  laid  lowly  in  a  manger  tho  still  living  sublimely  re- 
vealed on  high. 
Now  in  faith  let  us  count  happy  the  one  who  bore  thee, 
And  let  us  exalt  with  hymns  the  One  born. 

"God  who  was  on  high  without  mother 
Was  below  and  was  without  mother.    Glory  to  thee! 

"O  God,  who  humbled  thyself  to  be  born  as  an  'infant  from  a 

Virgin, 
The  holy  mighty  One  who  was  willing  to  be  placed  in  the  arms 

of  Mary, 
Thou  holy  immortal  One  who  came  to  lead  Adam  back  from  the 

grave, 
Christ  our  God  have  mercy  upon  us ! 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        307 

"Stainless  Virgin,  gifted  with  grace,  mother  of  God, 
Thy  holy  womb  hast  born  Emmanuel, 
Thy  breasts  gave  suck  to  the  nurturer  of  all. 
Therefore  art  thou  highly  praised  and  in  great  honor. 
Hail,  mother  of  God,  precious  treasure  of  angels, 
Thou  favored  one,  proclaimed  in  the  message  of  the  prophets, 
The  Lord  is  with  thee."  ^^ 

Several  copies  of  the  Psalter  used  in  the  ancient 
Coptic  Church  have  recently  come  to  light.  One  of  the 
most  important  of  these  was  found  by  some  Egyptian 
peasants  in  Upper  Egypt  hidden  in  a  stone  box  or 
coffer.  Two  books  were  inside  the  box,  wrapt  in 
coarse  linen  cloth.  They  were  written  upon  papyrus 
but  bound  in  stout  leather  covers.  They  were  beauti- 
fully preserved  and  consisted  of  a  volume  containing 
ten  complete  homilies  by  the  Fathers  of  the  Monophy- 
site  church  and  a  complete  copy  of  the  Psalter,  in  the 
dialect  of  Upper  Egypt. 

This  Psalter,  consisting  of  156  leaves,  was  edited  by 
Dr.  Budge,  of  the  British  Museum,  who  pointed  out  its 
unique  importance  since  it  was  the  "only  complete  copy 
of  the  Psalter  in  the  dialect  of  Upper  Egypt,  which 
has  come  down  to  us."  It  dates  from  the  sixth  or 
seventh  century,  tho  rebound  in  the  eleventh  or 
twelfth  century.*^^  Another  discovery  as  spectacular  as 
the  above  occurred  in  1908  when  Charles  L.  Freer  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  in  Egypt  a  volume  of  700  pages — 
a  volume  so  small  that  the  pages  only  measured  2^ 
inches  wide  by  3^  inches  high — containing  a  Psalter 
made  of  goat  skin  and  dating  a.d.  400-700.^^" 

^  See  also  Greek  and  Latin  hymns,  EncyclopcBdia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  Vol.  VII.,  1914. 

""» E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  The  Earliest  Knomn  Coptic  Psalter,  1898. 

^^  The  Coptic  Psalter  in  the  Freer  Collection,  ed.  by  William  H. 
Worrell,  1916. 


3o8    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

It  may  be  added  that  the  "Canticles  of  the  Christian 
Church  East  and  West,"  as  found  in  all  available  manu- 
scripts, have  recently  been  published  by  Dr.  James 
Mearns  (1914).  Any  one  who,  like  the  writer,  has 
ever  been  at  the  dawn  service  at  Mt.  Sinai  can  quite 
understand  how  St.  Augustine  felt  when  a.d.  358  he  for 
the  first  time  heard  the  Scriptures  sung  or  chanted  by 
a  choir  of  monks.  In  these  earliest  manuscripts  just 
found  we  can  read  the  very  phrases  over  which  St. 
Augustine  wept  when  he  first  heard  them.  They  in- 
clude the  Lord's  Prayer,  Magnificat,  Gloria  in  Excelsis, 
Nunc  Dimittis,  etc.  This  Dawn  Service  proves,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Mearns,  that  the  "Odes  of  Solomon," 
next  to  be  mentioned,  were  known  to  their  composer. 

Many  hymns  have  been  preserved,  and  recently 
discovered,  written  in  Syriac.  Here  is  one  written  by 
Bishop  Severus  about  a.d.  500: 

On  the  Holy  Ascension 
"Thou  God  who  bowedst  the  heavens. 
The  Word  who  is  before  the  ages, 
The  Word  of  God  who  shone  on  us 
Through  the  only  Son  of  God,  the  Word 
The  hosts  of  heaven  shook  with  amazement."  ^^ 

By  far  the  greatest  discovery,  however,  so  far  as 
Christian  hymnology  is  concerned,  was  made  when  Dr. 
J.  Rendel  Harris  found  in  1909  a  large  Syriac  manu- 
script of  64  leaves  and  published  it  to  the  world  in  1909 
under  the  title.  Odes  and  Psalms  of  Solomon.^^  Really 
the  "Psalms"  have  very  little  in  common  with  the 
"Odes,"  and  they  should  not  be  classed  together.     The 

^For  many  more  of  these  see,  Patrologia  Orientalis,  1911,  pp.  1-179, 
595-802. 

*'In  1911  Prof.  F.  C.  Burkitt  found  in  the  British  Museum  another 
MS.  (10th  century)  containing  a  large  part  of  these  newly  discovered 
Odes. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        309 

"Psalms"  were  a  collection  made  by  the  Pharisees  some 
half-century  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  had  been 
known  (tho  in  a  different  version)  for  many  decades. 
The  *'Odes,"  however,  now  come  to  light  for  the  first 
time,  and  because  of  their  peculiarly  mystic  thought 
and  phraseology,  greatly  resembling  that  of  the  gospel 
of  St.  John,  they  occupy  a  uniquely  important  position 
for  Christian  scholars.  Professor  Harnack  in  a  splen- 
did hundred-w^ord  sentence  declares  the  find  to  be  su- 
perior to  anything  ever  discovered  since  the  Teaching 
of  the  Apostles,  being  "epoch-making  for  the  higher 
critic  of  John's  gospel,"  since  these  odes  contain  "all- 
important  pieces  of  the  Johannine  theology  together 
with  their  religious  tone  color. "^^"^ 

Dr.  Harnack  is  certain  that  we  possess  here  a 
"Psalm-Book"  of  the  time  of  Jesus,  which  was  taken 
over  and  edited  by  the  Christian  community  of  Pales- 
tine about  the  year  100  {ibid.,  3:5).  Dr.  Harris  and 
many  other  specialists  regard  the  "Odes"  as  the  work 
of  a  Jewish  Christian  of  the  first  century,  tho  some 
think  them  to  be  wholly  Jewish,  adopted  with  certain 
Christian  interpolations  to  form  the  earliest  Christian 
hymnal.  Very  many,  following  Harnack,  Kennedy, 
and  Cheyne,  think  the  interpolations  numerous,  but 
some — notably  Kittel  and  Abbott — offer  strong  verbal 
and  stylistic  arguments  to  prove  the  unity  of  the  book 
and  the  interpolations  negligible.  Bishop  Bernard  ^^ 
believes  them  to  be  hymns  of  "the  newly  baptized," 
which  give  us  the  actual  form  of  initiation  with 
which  converts  were  received  in  the  second  century, 

""  Texte    itnd    Untersuchtingen    sur    altchristlich.    Literatur,    von    A. 
Harnack  u.  C.  Schmidt,  Vol.  XXXV  (1910),  Heft  4. 

*=  See  Texts  and  Studies,  Vol.  VHI,  1912,  No.  3. 


3IO    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

into  the  Christian  communion;  and  he  sustains  this 
view  with  forceful  arguments.  Dr.  E.  A.  Abbott  pre- 
fers to  think  of  them  as  "Songs  of  Ascents  or  De- 
grees," in  which  the  thought  ascends  from  the  Son 
of  David,  husband  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  to  that  sec- 
ond and  perfect  Son  of  David  who  was  hailed  from 
heaven  as  the  Beloved  and  who  was  the  Spouse  of  the 
Church.^^  In  any  case,  the  exceptional  value  of  these 
hymns — which  without  any  question  represent  Chris- 
tian doctrine  and  feeling  within  a  few  years  of  the 
death  of  the  "beloved  disciple" — throws  an  unexpected 
light  upon  the  Johannine  spirit  and  mystic  phraseology 
of  the  early  Church  at  a  time  previous  to  the  develop- 
ment of  Gnosticism.^^ 

The  interest  awakened  by  this  unique  treasure  of 
early  Christian  song  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  at 
least  1 66  books  or  important  articles  concerning  this 
discovery  appeared  between  the  years  1909-1914.^^ 
There  is  a  marked  literary  excellence  as  well  as  beauty 
of  thought  shown  in  these  hymns.  As  Bishop  Bernard 
says,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  find  Christian  poems  of 
any  age  "which  strike  a  higher  spiritual  note."  The 
author  was  evidently  a  devout  Christian — who  may 
have  been  a  Jew  but  who  certainly  did  not  keep  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  (Ode  XVI) — having  an  attitude  of 
mind  possible  only  to  one  who  has  entered  into  close 
fellowship  with   God.^^ 

The  Odes  are  "marked  by  a  vigor  and  exaltation 

^  Light  on  the  Gospel  from  an  Ancient  Poet,  in  Diatessarica,  Part  IX. 

^  See  especially  the  works  cited  by  Harnack  and  Abbott  and  the  articles 
by  R.  H,  Strachan,  Expository  Times,  1910-11,  pp.  7-14,  and  by  Dr. 
Schweitzer,  Journal  of  Theol.  Studies,  XIII.,  372-386. 

^^See  full  list  in  Gerhard  Kittel's  Die  Oden  Salomos,  Leipzig,  1914, 
pp.  142-158. 

^  Kittel,  op.  cit.,  p.  Z6. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        311 

of  spiritual  life  and  a  mystical  insight  to  which  we 
can  find  parallels  only  in  the  most  illuminated  periods 
of  the  history  of  the  Church"  (Harris).  They  have 
few,  if  any,  quotations  or  adaptations  from  Scripture; 
but  this  only  suggests  their  extreme  antiquity  and  that 
their  ''inspiration  is  first-hand  and  immediate"  (Abbott). 

No  one  doubts  that  we  have  here  a  collection  of 
j  "hymns  and  spiritual  songs"  coming  from  the  apostolic 
age  and  breathmg  the  deepest  thoughts  of  the  New 
Testament.  This,  indeed,  as  one  scholar  suggests,  may 
possibly  be  one  of  the  very  collections  referred  to  by 
St.  Paul  (Eph.  5:  19;  Col.  3:  16),  having  come  into 
existence  before  the  gospels  were  universally  known. 
While,  as  we  have  said,  there  is  no  direct  mention  of 
any  incident  in  Christ's  life,  nor  any  direct  quotation 
from  the  New  Testament,  there  are  oblique  references 
to  the  dove  of  the  baptism  (Ode  XXIV),  to  his  yoke 
(Ode  XLII),  to  the  "rock"  on  which  he  built  the 
Church  (Ode  XXIII) ;  and  frequent  allusions  to  Christ 
as  the  Head,  which  has  a  Pauline  ring  ( Eph.  1 1 :  22 ; 
5:22;  Col.  1 :  18)  and  to  the  living  crown  which  re- 
minds us  of  other  New  Testament  writers  (i  Peter 
5:4;  James  i :  12) ;  while  there  is  the  most  pronounced 
connection  in  thought  and  style  between  these  Odes 
and  the  writings  of  St.  John.  The  author's  keywords 
are  love,  joy,  faith,  knowledge,  truth,  rest,  grace,  glory; 
and  he  urges  in  Johannine  fashion  the  spiritual  neces- 
sity of  fruit.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Lord  Christ, 
as  Abbott  pointed  out,  is  not  mentioned  as  the  con- 
queror, but  as  the  "Redeemer"  of  the  Gentiles.  This 
author  finds  132  references  to  John's  gospel  suggested 
by  the  Odes. 

The  thought  of  these  hymns  is  not  put  in  the  fa- 


312     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

miliar  orthodox  form — these  Odes  were  written  before 
orthodoxy  had  crystallized — but  our  author  clearly 
states  that  "Christ  is  the  Word;  that  he  is  before  the 
foundations  of  the  world;  that  he  bestows  living  water 
abundantly;  that  he  is  the  door  of  everything;  that  he 
stands  to  his  people  in  the  relation  of  Lover  to  the 
beloved ;  that  they  love  him  because  he  first  loved  them" 
(Harris).  We  find  in  this  earliest  Christian  hymn- 
book,  which  was  in  use  before  the  reputed  death  of 
St.  John,  a  direct  teaching  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity, virgin  birth,  and  descent  into  Hades,  while  its 
Christology  gives  tone  to  almost  every  thought  of  every 
Ode:  Christ's  pre-existence,  his  preeminence  in  the 
Church;  spiritual  union  between  himself  and  believers, 
his  deity  as  "Son  of  the  Most  High  who  appeared  in 
the  perfection  of  the  Father  .  .  .  the  Word  .  .  •  the 
Messiah  who  was  truly  One  and  was  known  before 
the  foundations  of  the  world."  ^^ 

We  wall  now  give  from  this  very  long  document, 
containing  over  i,ooo  verses,  a  sufficient  series  of  ex- 
tracts to  show  the  general  style  and  teaching  of  the 
various  hymns.  We  will  follow  Dr.  Harris'  transla- 
tion— altho  with  the  omission  of  many  lines  and  para- 
graphs— except  as  this  is  slightly  modified  occasionally 
by  the  rendering  of  Johannes  Fleming,  Abbott,  and 
(most  frequently)   Bernard: 

ODE  I  (given  in  full) 

"The  Lord  is  on  my  head  like  a  crown  and  I  shall  not  be  with- 
out him.  A  crown  of  truth  has  been  woven  for  me,  and  it  has 
caused  thy  branches  to  grow  in  me.  For  it  is  not  like  a  withered 
crown  which  blossometh  not,  but  liveth  upon  my  head,  and  thou 

*"  For  this  rather  elaborate  analysis  of  this  remarkable  work  the  writer 
is  wholly  indebted  to  the  brilliant  and  thorough  investigations  of  J.  Rendel 
Harris  and  E.  A.  Abbott,  referred  to  above. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       313 

hast  blossomed  upon  my  head.     Thy  fruits  are  full  grown  and 
perfect,  full  of  thy  salvation." 

ODE  II 

"And  on  them  do  I  hang,  and  he  loves  me,  for  I  should  not 
have  known  how  to  love  the  Lord  if  he  had  not  loved  me  {cf.  i  John 
4:  19).  For  who  is  able  to  distinguish  ["discern  and  interpret," 
Abbott]  love  except  the  one  that  is  loved?  I  love  the  Beloved 
and  my  soul  loves  him ;  and  where  his  rest  is,  there  also  am  I,  and 
I  shall  be  no  stranger,  for  with  the  Lord  Most  High  and  Merciful 
there  is  no  grudging.  I  have  been  united  in  wedlock  to  him,  for 
the  lover  has  found  the  beloved  ;  and  because  I  shall  love  him  that 
is  the  Son,  I  shall  become  a  son  .    .    .   Hallelujah !"  ^"^ 

ODE  IV 

"Thou  hast  given  thy  heart,  O  Lord,  to  thy  believers.  Never 
wilt  thou  fail  nor  be  without  fruits ;  for  one  hour  of  thy  faith  is 
more  precious  than  all  the  days  and  years.  For  who  is  there  that 
shall  put  on  thy  grace  and  be  hurt?  .  .  .  distill  thy  dews  upon 
us,  and  open  thy  rich  fountains  that  pour  forth  to  us  milk  and 
honey   .    .    .   Hallelujah !"  »^ 

ODE  VI 

"As  the  hand  moves  over  the  harp  and  the  strings  speak,  so 
speaks  in  my  members  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  and  I  speak  by  his 
love.  .  .  .  For  there  went  forth  a  stream  and  became  a  river  great 
and  broad.  .  .  .  Blessed  then  are  the  ministers  of  that  draught  who 
are  entrusted  with  his  water  .  .  .  for  every  one  knew  them  in 
the  Lord  and  they  lived  by  the  water  of  life  forever.  They  have 
refreshed  the  dry  lips,  and  the  will  that  was  paralyzed  they  have 
raised  up,  and  the  souls  that  were  near  departing  they  drew  (back) 
from  death." 

ODE  VII 

"...  He  became  like  me  in  order  that  I  might  receive  him ; 
he  was  reckoned  like  myself  that  I  might  put  him  on  (as  a  robe), 
and  I  trembled  not  when  I  saw  him  because  he  is  my  salvation ; 

'^^ Harris:  "Because  I  shall  love  him  that  is  the  Son  that  I  may  be  a 
son;  for  he  that  is  joined  to  him  that  is  immortal  will  also  himself  become 
immortal." 

"'Abbott:  "Sprinkle  on  us  Thy  sprinklings  (of  dew)  and  open  Thy 
rich  fountains  that  pour  forth  to  us  milk  and  honey  (of  Thy  promise)." 


314     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

like  my  nature  he  became,  that  I  might  learn  him  and  like  my 
form,  that  I  might  not  turn  back  from  him ;  the  Father  of  knowl- 
edge is  the  word  of  knowledge  .  .  .  the  Most  High  shall  be 
known  in  his  saints  to  proclaim  the  good  news  to  those  who  have 
in  their  hearts  songs  of  the  Lord's  coming  .  .  .  and  they  shall  bring 
their  songs,  and  their  heart  shall  be  like  the  day;  and  like  the  ex- 
cellent beauty  of  the  Lord  their  pleasant  song;  and  there  shall  be 
nothing  that  breathes  .  .  .  that  is  dumb  .  .  .  Hallelujah!" 

ODE  VIII 

"...  Keep  [or  "guard"]  my  secret,  ye  who  are  kept  [or 
"guarded"]  by  it ;  keep  my  faith,  ye  who  are  kept  by  it ;  and  under- 
stand [or  "know"]  my  knowledge,  ye  who  know  me  in  truth. 
Love  me  with  affection  [or  "fervent  love"],  ye  who  love;  for  I  do 
not  turn  away  my  face  from  those  who  are  mine;  for  I  know 
them,  and  before  they  came  into  being  I  took  knowledge  of  them, 
and  on  their  faces  I  set  my  seal ;  I  fashioned  their  members ;  my 
own  breasts  I  prepared  for  them  that  they  might  drink  my  holy 
milk  and  live  thereby.  .  .  .  Ask  and  abound  and  abide  in  the 
love  of  the  Lord,  and,  ye  beloved  ones,  in  the  Dearly  Beloved ;  and 
ye  shall  be  found  incorrupt  in  all  ages  ["aeons"]  to  the  name  of 
your  Father  .    .    .   Hallelujah." 

ODE  IX 

"Open  your  ears  and  I  will  speak  to  you.  Give  me  your  souls 
that  I  may  also  give  you  my  soul,  the  word  of  the  Lord  and  his 
good  pleasures,  the  holy  thought  which  he  has  devised  concerning 
his  Messiah.  ...  Be  strong  and  be  redeemed  by  his  grace.  An 
everlasting  crown  forever  in  truth  .  .  .  blessed  are  they  who  set 
it  on  their  heads.  Put  on  the  crown  in  the  covenant  of  the  Lord. 
And  all  those  who  have  conquered  shall  be  written  in  his  book, 
.    .    .   Hallelujah!" 

ODE  X 

"The  Lord  hath  directed  my  mouth  by  his  word.  And  he 
hath  opened  my  heart  by  his  light ;  and  he  hath  caused  to  dwell  in 
me  his  deathless  light ;  and  gave  me  that  I  might  speak  the  fruit 
of  his  peace ;  to  convert  the  souls  of  them  that  are  willing  to  come 
to  him ;  and  to  lead  captive  a  good  captivity  for  freedom.  .  .  . 
And  the  Gentiles  were  gathered  together  who  were  scattered 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       315 

abroad.  And  I  was  not  polluted  by  my  fervent  love  for  them. 
.  .  .  And  they  walked  in  my  life  and  were  saved  and  became  my 
people  for  ever  and  ever.    Hallelujah  !" 

ODE   XI 

"My  heart  was  circumcised  [or-  "cloven"]  and  its  flower 
["stem"]  appeared;  and  grace  sprang  up  ["budded"]  in  it;  and  it 
brought  forth  fruit  in  the  Lord ;  for  the  Most  High  circumcised  me 
[or  "clove  my  heart"]  by  his  Holy  Spirit  and  revealed  my  reins 
toward  him ;  and  filled  me  with  his  love.  And  his  circumcision  of 
me  became  my  salvation ;  and  I  ran  in  his  way,  in  his  peace,  even 
in  the  way  of  truth  .  .  .  and  I  was  established  upon  the  rock  of 
truth  .  .  .  and  speaking  waters  touched  my  lips  from  the  foun- 
tain of  the  Lord  poured  forth  without  grudging,  and  I  drank  and 
was  inebriated  with  the  living  water  that  doth  not  die.  .  .  . 
Hallelujah!" 

ODE   XII 

"...  The  mouth  of  the  Lord  is  the  true  word  and  the  door 
of  his  light ;  and  the  Most  High  hath  given  it  to  his  worlds  .  .  . 
for  the  swiftness  of  the  word  can  not  be  expressed,  and  according 
to  its  swiftness  so  is  its  sharpness  .  .  .  by  it  the  worlds  talk  one 
to  the  other;  and  in  the  word  there  were  those  that  were  silent; 
and  from  it  came  love  and  concord  .  .  .  and  they  were  penetrated 
by  the  word  .  .  .  for  the  dwelling-place  of  the  word  is  man  and 
its  truth  is  love.  Blessed  are  they  who  by  means  thereof  have 
understood  everything  and  have  known  the  Lord  in  his  truth. 
Hallelujah!" 

ODE  XIII  (in  full) 

"Behold !  the  Lord  is  our  mirror ;  open  the  eyes  and  see  them 
in  him  ;  and  learn  the  manner  of  your  face ;  and  tell  forth  praises  to 
his  Spirit;  and  wipe  off  the  filth  from  your  face;  and  love  his 
holiness,  and  clothe  yourselves  therewith;  and  be  without  stain 
at  all  times  before  him.    Hallelujah !" 

ODE  XV 

"...  Death  hath  been  destroyed  before  my  face;  and 
Sheol  hath  been  abolished  by  my  word;  and  there  hath  gone  up 
deathless  life  in  the  Lord's  land,  and  it  hath  been  made  known  to 
all  his  faithful  ones,  and  hath  been  given  without  stint  to  all  those 
who  trust  in  him.   .    .    .  Hallelujah!" 


3i6    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

OPE  XVII 

"I  was  crowned  by  my  God ;  my  crown  is  living ;  and  I  was 
justified  in  my  Lord;  my  incorruptible  salvation  is  he.  ...  I 
received  the  face  and  the  fashion  of  a  new  person ;  I  have  entered 
therein  and  have  been  saved ;  and  the  thought  of  truth  led  me  on 
.  .  .  and  I  sowed  my  fruits  in  hearts  and  transformed  them 
into  myself;  and  they  received  my  blessing  and  lived;  and  they 
were  gathered  to  me  and  were  saved ;  because  they  were  to  me 
as  my  own  members,  and  I  was  their  head.  Glory  to  thee,  our 
Head,  the  Lord  Messiah.    Hallelujah !" 

ODE  XIX 

"A  cup  of  milk  was  offered  to  me ;  and  I  drank  it  in  the  sweet- 
ness of  the  delight  of  the  Lord.  The  Son  is  the  cup  and  he  who 
was  milked  is  the  Father;  and  the  Holy  Spirit  milked  him;  be- 
cause his  breasts  were  full,  and  it  did  not  seem  good  to  him  that 
his  milk  should  be  spilt  for  naught ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit  opened 
his  bosom  and  mingled  the  milk  from  the  two  breasts  of  the 
Father;  and  gave  the  mixture  to  the  world  without  its  knowing 
it.  And  they  who  receive  it  are  in  the  perfection  of  the  right  hand. 
The  womb  of  the  Virgin  caught  it  and  received  conception  and 
brought  forth,  and  the  Virgin  became  a  mother  with  many  mercies ; 
and  she  travailed  and  brought  forth  a  son  without  incurring  pain ; 
she  brought  him  forth  openly,  and  acquired  him  with  great  dignity, 
and  loved  him  in  his  swaddling  clothes,  and  guarded  him  kindly, 
and  showed  him  in  majesty"  (c/.  i  Tim.  3:  16).^^^ 

ODE  XXII 

"He  who  brought  me  down  from  on  high  also  brought  me 
from  the  regions  below ;  and  who  gathers  together  the  things  that 
are  betwixt  is  he  also  who  cast  me  down  ...  he  that  overthrew 
by  my  hands  the  dragon  with  seven  heads  .  .  .  Thou  didst  bring 
thy  world  to  corruption ;  that  everything  might  be  dissolved  and 
then  renewed,  and  that  the  foundation  for  everything  might  be 
thy  Rock  and  on  it  thou  didst  build  thy  kingdom ;  and  it  became 
(or  'thou  wast')  the  dwelling  place  of  the  saints.    Hallelujah  !" 

"'  Johannes  Flemming  translates :  "And  it  did  not  seem  proper  that  this 
milk  should  be  carelessly  spilled  .  .  .  and  those  who  receive  it  in  its 
fullness  are  on  the  right  hand  .  .  .  He  embraced  the  body  of  the  Virgin, 
and  she  conceived  and  became  a  mother  with  much  grace." 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        317 

ODE  XXIII 

"Joy  is  of  the  saints !  .  .  .  Grace  is  of  the  elect !  .  .  .  Love 
is  of  the  elect!  and  who  shall  put  it  on  except  those  who  have 
possest  it  from  the  beginning  .  .  .  and  his  thought  was  like  a 
letter  .  .  .  and  many  hands  rushed  to  the  letter  to  seize  it  and 
to  take  and  read  it;  and  it  escaped  their  fingers,  and  they  were 
affrighted  at  it  and  at  the  seal  that  was  upon  it.  Because  it  was 
not  permitted  of  them  to  loose  its  seal ;  for  the  power  that  was 
over  the  seal  was  greater  than  they  .  .  .  and  the  letter  was  a 
great  tablet  (cf.  Matt.  28:  19),  which  was  wholly  written  by  the 
finger  of  God ;  and  the  name  of  the  Father  was  on  it  and  of  the 
Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  rule  for  ever  and  ever.    Hallelujah  !" 

ODE  XXIV 

"The  Dove  fluttered  over  the  Christ  (Messiah)  because  he 
was  her  head  and  she  sang  over  him  and  her  voice  was  heard  .  .  . 
the  birds  dropt  their  wings  and  all  creeping  things  died  in  their 
holes  ;  and  the  abysses  opened  themselves  and  were  hidden  ^^  .  .  . 
and  they  sealed  up  the  abysses  with  the  seal  of  the  Lord." 

ODE  XXVII  (in  full) 

"I  stretched  out  my  hands  and  sanctified  my  Lord;  for  the 
extension  of  my  hands  is  his  sign ;  and  my  expansion  is  the  up- 
right tree  (or  cross)." 

ODE  XXVIII 

"As  the  wings  of  doves  over  their  nestlings,  and  the  mouth  of 
their  nestlings  toward  their  mouths,  so  also  are  the  wings  of  the 
Spirit  over  my  heart.  ...  I  believed ;  therefore  I  was  at  rest ; 
for  faithful  is  he  in  whom  I  have  believed ;  he  has  richly  blest  me 
and  my  head  is  with  him ;  and  the  sword  shall  not  divide  me  from 
him  nor  the  scimitar  .  .  ,  immortal  life  has  come  forth  and  has 
kissed  me,^^  and  from  that  life  is  the  spirit  within  me  and  it  can 
not  die  for  it  lives  .  .  .  vainly  did  they  cast  lots  [or  "make  at- 
tack"] upon  me  ...  in  vain  did  those  who  were  behind  me  seek 
to  bring  to  naught  the  memory  [or  "memorial"]  of  him  who 
was  before  them ;  for  nothing  is  prior  to  the  thought  of  the  Most 
High  ;  and  his  heart  is  superior  to  all  wisdom.    Hallelujah  !" 

^^  Harris,  "the  abysses  were  opened  which  had  been  hidden." 
"Harris,  "Immortal  life  will  come  forth  and  give  me  to  drink." 


3i8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ODE  XXX 

"Fill  ye  waters  for  yourselves  from  the  living  fountain  of  the 
Lord,  for  it  is  open  to  you ;  and  come,  all  ye  thirsty,  and  take  the 
d  aught ;  and  rest  by  the  fountain  of  the  Lord  ..." 

ODE  XXXI 

"And  they  denounced  me  as  a  criminal  when  I  showed  myself, 
me  who  had  never  been  a  criminal ;  ^*  and  they  divided  my  spoil 
tho  nothing  was  due  to  them.  But  I  endured  and  held  my  peace 
and  was  silent  .  .  .  and  I  bore  their  bitterness  for  humility's 
sake ;  in  order  that  I  might  redeem  my  people  and  inherit  it,  and 
that  I  might  not  make  void  my  promises  to  the  fathers  to  whom  I 
promised  the  salvation  of  their  seed.  Hallelujah!"  {cf.  Luke 
1:69-73.) 

ODE  XXXII  (in  full) 

"To  the  blest  there  is  joy  from  their  hearts,  and  light  from 
him  that  dwells  in  them ;  and  words  from  the  Truth  who  was  Self- 
originate;  for  he  is  strengthened  by  the  holy  power  of  the  Most 
High ;  and  he  is  unshakable  for  ever  and  ever.    Hallelujah !" 

ODE  XLI 

"...  His  word  is  with  us  in  all  our  way ;  the  Saviour  who 
makes  alive  and  does  not  reject  our  souls,  the  Man  who  was 
humbled  and  exalted  by  his  own  righteousness,  the  Son  of  the 
Most  High  appeared  in  the  perfection  of  his  Father;  and  light 
dawned  from  the  Word  that  was  before  time  in  him ;  the  Christ 
is  truly  one;  and  he  was  known  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  that  he  might  save  souls  forever  by  the  truth  of  his  name. 
A  new  song  (arises)  from  those  who  love  him.    Hallelujah!" 

ODE  XLII 

"I  stretched  out  my  hands  and  approached  my  Lord ;  for  the 
stretching  of  my  hands  {i.e.,  the  cross)  is  his  sign;  my  expansion 
is  the  outspread  tree  which  was  set  up  on  the  way  of  the  Righteous 
One  .  .  .  and  I  lifted  up  over  them  the  yoke  of  my  love;  like 
the  arm  of  the  bridegroom  over  the  bride,  so  was  my  yoke  over 
those  that  know  me  .    .    .   and  I  was  not  rejected,  tho  I  was 

**  Harris,  "And  they  made  me  a-debtor  when  I  rose  up,  me  who  had  not 
been  a  debtor." 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        319 

reckoned  to  be  so.  I  did  not  perish,  the  they  devised  it  against 
me.  Sheol  saw  me  and  was  made  miserable,  death  gave  me  up 
and  many  along  with  me.  I  was  gall  and  bitterness  to  him,  and 
I  went  down  with  him  to  the  uttermost  of  his  depths  .  .  ,  and 
I  made  a  congregation  of  living  men  amongst  his  dead  men  and  I 
spake  with  them  by  living  lips  ...  let  us  also  be  redeemed  with 
thee ;  for  thou  art  our  Redeemer.  And  I  heard  their  voice ;  and 
my  name  I  sealed  upon  their  heads;  for  they  are  free  men  and 
they  are  mine.    Hallelujah!" 

We  have  made  these  many  quotations  from  these 
oldest  Christian  hymns  because  of  their  phenomenal  im- 
portance in  showing  the  Christian  doctrine  of  that 
earliest  Christian  Church  and  the  confidence  with  which 
they  rested  upon  the  acts  recorded  in  the  four  gospels. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  distinctly  taught  (Ode 
XIX).  The  Messiah  was  the  divine  Son  of  God  "by 
whom  the  worlds  were  made"  (XVI:  20);  "who  ap- 
peared in  the  perfection  of  his  Father"  (XLI);  born 
of  a  Virgin  (XIX) ;  that  he  might  redeem  his  people 
(XXXI) ;  who  descended  into  the  grave  but  rose  again, 
and  with  whom  his  people  can  rise  (XLII) ;  and  have 
complete  victory  over  death  (XLII).  The  last  ode 
is  evidently  the  climax  of  the  whole  collection.  There 
is  nothing  in  it  for  which  the  way  has  not  been  ar- 
tistically prepared  (tho  perhaps  rather  by  a  spiritual 
than  by  a  conscious  art)  in  various  preceding  stages. 
There  is,  for  example,  almost  at  the  opening,  the 
"stretching  out  of  the  hands,"  mentioned  before  and 
now  repeated,  as  the  "sign"  of  the  Lord,  indicating  the 
triumph  of  the  cross;  there  is  also  the  bridegroom,  no 
longer  merely  the  Beloved,  but  with  his  "arm  over  the 
Bride,"  the  wedding  being  consummated;  there  is  the 
rescue  of  the  dead,  like  Israel  of  old  "brought  again 
from  the  depths  of  the  sea" ;  lastly  there  is  a  "running" 


320    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  captive  humanity  toward  its  Rescuer,  and  a  sim- 
ultaneous recognition  of  him  as  the  "Son  of  God" 
(Abbott,  op.  cit.,  477).  It  is  a  fit  close  to  a  series  of 
visions,  depicting  the  purpose  of  the  Father  to  redeem 
to  the  uttermost  all  who  "run"  to  "the  Son  of  God 
for  help" — for  the  Christ  is  Lord  even  over  the  grave ! 

9.  Private  and  Official  Letters  of  Early 

Christians 
The  writer  can  never  forget  the  strange  thrill  of 
excitement  that  came  to  him  when  he  first  examined 
a  letter  which  was  supposed  to  be  written  by  a  Chris- 
tian of  the  second  century.  It  was  a  papyrus  found 
by  Grenfell  and  Hunt  and  published  in  1903.^^  The 
name  of  the  writer  was  Serenus,  and  the  letter  was 
addrest  to  his  "sister"  {i.e.,  wife)  Isidora.  It  read 
in  part: 

"Many  greetings.  .  .  .  Before  all  else  I  pray  for  your  health, 
and  every  day  and  evening  I  perform  the  act  of  veneration  on 
your  behalf.  ...  I  assure  you  that  ever  since  you  left  me  I 
have  been  in  mourning,  weeping  by  night  and  lamenting  by  day." 

Unfortunately  this  text,  upon  closer  inspection, 
proved  to  be  from  a  heathen.^"  The  same  editors,  how- 
ever (1909-1911),  published  the  Greek  text  of  several 
letters  which  are  certainly  Christian.  One  of  these  is 
from  a  sick  woman  living  in  the  fourth  century : 

"...  to  our  God  and  gracious  Saviour  ...  I  write  this 
to  you  in  sickness,  and  very  ill  and  quite  unable  to  rise  from  my 
bed."  ^^ 

•'  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  II.,  No.  528. 

**  Dr.  Victor  Martin  of  Geneva,  Switzerland,  who  was  one  of  the  joint 
editors  of  the  Catalogue  of  Greek  Papyri  in  the  John  Rylands  Library, 
writes  me  that  there  can  be  no  possible  doubt  as  to  the  heathen  character 
of  this  letter. 

"Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  VII.,  No.  1161. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        321 

Another  is  too  mutilated  to  be  well  read,  but  it  is 
from  a  man  of  the  same  era  and  in  it  certain  phrases 
stand  out  with  distinctness: 

"Fullness  of  joy  .  .  .1  pray  for  your  health  in  the  Lord 
God.  .  .  .  Beloved  brothers  in  the  Lord  God  .  .  .  Emmanuel 
is  my  witness."  ^^ 

Certainly  these  early  Christians  did  not  forget  their 
religion  when  they  wrote  letters  to  their  friends. 
Neither  did  they  fail  to  show  themselves  to  be  Chris- 
tians when  they  wrote  to  their  superiors.  A  Christian 
servant,  writing  to  his  master  concerning  the  illness 
of  his  mistress  (fourth  century),  writes  in  this  courte- 
ous fashion,  incidentally  illustrating  an  important  New 
Testament  word: 

"Please  pardon  me,  my  lord,  and  receive  me  kindly  (aKobe^ei; 
cf.  Acts  24:3;  28:30;  2:41),  tho  I  unwillingly  caused  you  so 
much  anxiety  by  writing  to  you  the  messages  which  you  re- 
ceived." ^^ 

In  the  very  latest  discovered  Christian  letter,""  a 
father  and  mother  of  the  third  century  of  our  era  write 
to  their  son  thanking  God  they  have  recovered  health, 
and  adding  the  strange  words :  "up  to  the  present  time 
we  have  not  sacrificed  the  pigs!"  This  I  suppose  to 
allude  to  a  common  form  of  heathen  sacrifice,  and  to 
be  a  notice  to  their  absent  son  that  they  were  standing 
firm  in  the  faith.  In  this  same  collection  (No.  13)  a 
son,  who  almost  too  prominently  emphasizes  his  re- 
ligious profession,  writes  home  (fifth  century)  asking 
his  mother  in  a  badly  spelled  letter  to  send  him  "the 

"^Ihid.  No.  1162. 

"^  Oxyrhynchns  Papyri,  VI.,  No.  939 ;  cf.  Moulton  and  Milligan's  Vo- 
cabulary, I.,  61. 

^'^Oxyrhynchns  Papyri,  1914,  X.,  1299. 


322     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

rings"  and  to  buy  him  certain  things  for  winter.     It 
begins : 

"To  the  lady,  my  most  esteemed  and  virtuous  mother,  Maria, 
from  your  son  Peter  in  the  Lord  God,  Greeting." 

Greetings  are  then  added  to  various  "sweetest 
brethren"  whose  names  are  given,  and  the  boy  closes 
with  the  customary  prayers  for  their  health.  The 
opening  words  of  this  letter  are  xfj  xvQia,  almost  ex- 
actly as  the  opening  words  of  3  John ;  and  it  is  delight- 
ful to  find  this  Christian  youth  in  the  midst  of  his  letter 
speaking  of  his  mother  most  tenderly  as  "my  dearest 
Maria,"  "Lady  Mother,"  etc. 

From  this  same  century,  or  a  little  earlier,  occurs 
this  rather  formal  Christian  epistle: 

"To  my  beloved  brother  blest  in  God,  Paulus,  from  Apa 
Johannes.  I  wish  to  be  found  worthy  of  writing  continually  to 
your  holiness.  ...  I  greet  you,  my  brother  Paulus,  and  all 
those  of  your  house  in  the  Lord."  ^""^ 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  the  Christian  docu- 
ments so  far  discovered  (The  Epistle  of  Psenosiris) 
was  published  in  1902,  with  its  true  explanation  by 
Dr.   Deissmann : 

"From  Psenosiris  the  presbyter  to  Apollo  the  presbyter  his 
beloved  brother  in  the  Lord,  greeting ! 

"Above  all,  I  salute  thee  often  times,  and  all  the  brethren  that 
are  with  thee  in  God.  I  would  have  thee  know,  brother,  that  the 
grave-diggers  here  into  the  inner  parts  have  brought  Politike,  who 
was  sent  into  the  Oasis  by  the  government,  and  I  have  handed  her 
over  to  the  good  and  faithful  among  the  grave-diggers  until  her 
son  Nilos  be  come.   ...   I  wish  thee  welfare  in  the  Lord  God." 

That  is  the  way  one  preacher  wrote  to  another  in 
the  third  century  concerning  a  Christian  woman  who 

**«'  Amherst  Papyri,  Part  2,  1901,  No.  CXLV. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        323 

was  banished  to  the  Oasis  of  el-Khargeh,  where  pris- 
oners of  State  were  sent.  The  "grave-diggers"  or 
fossores  mentioned  in  the  text  were  the  undertakers, 
who  are  often  mentioned  in  the  Catacombs  and  else- 
where as  having  charge  of  the  selhng  of  graves  and 
the  setting  up  of  monuments,  and  were  often  extor- 
tionate in  their  charges.  In  this  case,  however,  they 
may  represent  fellow  Christian  exiles  in  the  Oasis.  It 
is  a  curious  thing  that  the  Greek  name  poUfikan  was 
the  term  for  "harlot"  in  Byzantine  times;  tho  it  occurs 
also  as  a  proper  name.  Whether  this  woman  was  a 
converted  harlot  or  had  been  given  by  some  misfortune 
this  peculiarly  ill-odorous  name,  in  any  case  she  must 
have  been  a  woman  of  the  better  class  whose  property 
had  been  confiscated  and  who  had  been  banished  to  this 
desert  place.^**^  This  letter  throws  a  vivid  light  upon 
the  care  which  Christians  had  for  each  other  at  that 
early  period. 

Other  Christian  letters  show  that  even  in  money 
matters  the  Christians  were  expected  to  help  each 
other,  and  that  the  early  Christian  churches  were  also 
expected  to  be  banks  which  could  loan  money  to  de- 
serving brethren."^ 

Numbers  of  business  letters  from  Christian  men 
have  come  down  to  us,  among  which  I  would  especially 
mention  that  of  Zacharias  and  Silvanos,  "head  men"  of 
the  village  of  Demetrios  near  Hermopolis,  who  write  to 
Tyrannos,  deacon  of  the  church  there,  sending  him  a 
receipt  for  "fifty-one  thousand  talents" — tho  part  of  this 
debt  still  remains  unpaid."^     It  is  noticeable  that  Sil- 

*"  Several  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  early  Christians  bear  this  name ; 
see  e.g.,  Sinaitic  Palimpsest,  vii,  viii. 
'°'E.g.,  Amherst  Papyri,  II.,  pp.  28-30. 
^'^^  Publicazioni  de  la  Societa  Italiana,  Vol.  I,  No.  43. 


324     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES     ' 

vanos,  notwithstanding  his  wealth,  is  unable  even  to 
sign  his  name,  and  Zacharias — who  could  write  but  cer- 
tainly could  not  spell — signs  his  name  for  him. 

In  another  document  (sixth  century)  Aurelius 
Ploution,  a  baker  from  the  city  of  Oxyrhynchus,  rents 
"the  small  house"  belonging  to  one  of  the  churches  of 
that  city,  on  the  street  Axaxiog,  with  its  lands,  agreeing 
to  pay  ''to  the  same  holy  church  .  .  .  yearly  of  gold 
coin  a  third  ( ?)  by  private  scale."  This  indicates  that 
the  church  had  a  special  scale  of  values  b^^  which  they 
tested  all  purchases.^"* 

One  beautifully  written  missive  is  addrest  to  a  Chris- 
tian soldier  stationed  in  the  Fayum  about  a.d.  346.  It 
is  one  of  a  -package  of  some  sixty  letters  written  from 
A.D.  343  to  351,  belonging  to  Flavins  Abinnaeus,  a 
Roman  cavalry  officer.  This  particular  note  is  from  a 
priest  who  intercedes  for  a  private  soldier  who  is  under 
discipline,  very  much  as  St.  Paul  interceded  for  Onesi- 
mus  (Philemon,  verses  15-18). 

"Greeting!  I  salute  thy  children  much.  I  would  have  thee 
know,  Sir,  concerning  Paul  the  soldier,  concerning  his  flight ; 
pardon  him  this  once  .  .  .  and  if  he  desist  not  he  will  come 
again  into  thy  hands  another  time.  Fare  thee  well,  I  pray,  many 
years,  my  lord  brother."  ^°*^ 

A  most  interesting  letter  from  the  fourth  century 
is  from  Justin  to  his  dear  brother  Papnuthius 
Chrestophorus  ("Christ-bearer").    It  reads: 

"It  behoved  me  to  write  to  thy  excellence,  my  dear  lord.  For 
we  believe  that  thy  citizenship  is  in  heaven ;  wherefore  we  regard 

^"^  Ibid.,  No.  75.  I  am  much  indebted  to  my  colleague,  Dr.  Wm.  A. 
Elliott,  for  assistance  in  working  out  the  meaning  of  several  of  the  above 
very  obscure  letters  and  for  other  help  in  instances  too  numerous  to  men- 
tion specifically. 

'°*''  Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  205-210. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        325 

thee  as  our  master  and  common  protector.  But  lest  I  write  and 
prate  too  much  (for  in  much  talk  there  is  no  escape  from  sin),  I 
pray  thee,  Master,  recall  me  in  thy  holy  prayers  that  we  may  be 
partakers  in  the  cleansing  of  sins.  For  I  am  of  those  that  sin. 
.  .  .  Many  greetings  I  send  to  all  our  many  brethren  in  the 
Lord,  and  may  the  divine  providence  protect  you  long  in  Jesus 
Christ,  beloved  Lord."  ^"^ 

The  above  title,  Chrestophorus  or  "Christ-bearer," 
was  commonly  given  to  bishops  in  the  Coptic  period,  so 
that  this  letter  probably  suggests  how  bishops  were 
already  honored  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century. 

This  conclusion  of  Dr.  Deissmann  may  be  modified, 
however,  by  the  next  new  discovery,  which  may  show 
that  the  title  "Christ-bearer"  was  not  confined  to  bishops 
any  more  than  the  title  "papa"  ("pope")  was.  The 
following  letter  of  the  sixth  century,  the  Greek  text  of 
which  was  published  in  191 3  by  Dr.  Paul  M.  Meyer,"® 
speaks  for  itself  regarding  the  distinction  even  then 
made  between  "pope"  and  "bishop" — the  latter  being 
the  superior  title : 

"To  the  beloved  and  most  God-fearing  brother  .  .  .  Sarapion, 
a  priest  (papa),  the  priest  (papa)  Heron  sends  greeting  in  the 
Lord. 

"When  I  was  in  the  village  Aphrodite  I  was  urged  by  the  elders 
["presbyters"]  there  to  write  to  your  holiness  in  regard  to  one 
Sansneut,  long  ago  appointed  by  Phoibadios  of  blest  memory  bishop 
(episkopos)  ...  of  his  village.  So  inasmuch  as  he  is  vouched 
for  by  his  village  and  by  the  clergy  themselves  as  being  of  blame- 
less life,  have  the  goodness  to  give  directions  that  he  be  instructed 
["regarded"  ?]  as  a  deacon  until  he  be  able  by  God's  help  to  return 
to  his  own  village.  I  and  those  with  me  in  the  Lord  address  you 
and  the  brethren  with  you  in  the  Lord." 

'"  Facsimile  and  full  text  in  Deissmann's  Light  from  the  Ancient  East, 
pp.  203-204. 

'"^  Griechische  Papyri  im  Museum  .   .   .  zu  Giessen,  Band  1,  Heft  2.  No. 
55. 


326     THIi  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

This  letter  was  dictated  according  to  the  usual  cus- 
tom, and  Father  Heron  adds  his  greeting  in  his  own 
handwriting  just  as  Paul  was  accustomed  to  do: 

"I  pray  that  you  are  well  in  the  Lord,  beloved  and  most  longed- 
for  Father." 

Meyer  thinks  that  this  letter  shows  how  the  ranks 
of  the  diaconate  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  were 
recruited  from  the  lowest  classes,  particularly  the  coun- 
try clergy,  who  knew  very  little,  often  being  able  not 
even  to  write.  This  point,  however,  must  not  be  unduly 
strained.  The  surprize  is  to  find  so  few  either  among 
the  clergy  or  common  people  who  are  unable  to  write; 
and  at  least  in  some  dioceses  in  Egypt,  candidates  for 
orders,  as  has  recently  been  proved,  were  required  to 
pass  rather  severe  examinations  before  being  admitted 
to  ordination.  Samuel,  Jacob,  and  Aaron,  in  a  letter 
written  to  their  bishop  about  a.d.  600,  promise  that  if 
they  do  not  watch  their  beds  on  the  days  of  communion 
and  ''learn  by  heart"  the  entire  gospel  of  John  and 
"practise  it,"  they  will  not  even  apply  for  ordination."^ 

Another  Christian  letter  from  near  the  middle  of  the 
third  century — perhaps  the  earliest  of  which  the  original 
has  come  down  to  us — shows  that  Christians  in  Alexan- 
dria and  Rome  who  were  dealing  in  "barley"  and  "linen 
cloth"  were  accustomed  to  deliver  the  money  for  safe- 
keeping to  "Maximus  the  pope"  (xov  Jidjtav),  who  is 
to  act  as  confidential  agent  in  this  business  engage- 
ment. One  or  two  phrases  from  this  letter  will  show 
how  intimate  those  early  Christians  were  with  their 
official  superiors,  and  how  interested  this  "papa,"  who 
was  evidently  an  ordinary  "father"  of  the  church,  was 
in  the  business  success  of  his  parishioners: 

*"See  Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  p.  211. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       327 

"Ye  shall  do  well  therefore,  brethren,  having  bought  the  linen 
cloth.  Then  let  some  of  you  take  the  .  .  .  and  set  forth  with 
it  unto  Maximus  the  papas  and  .  .  .  the  lector.  And  having 
sold  that  linen  cloth  in  Alexandria  deliver  the  money  unto 
Primitinus  or  Maximus  the  papas,  receiving  a  quittance  from  him. 
But  the  gain,  the  price  of  the  bread  sold  by  you  and  the  money  for 
the  linen  cloth,  let  him  commit  and  deliver  it  up  unto  Theonas,  in 
order  that  I  being  come  with  God  to  Alexandria  may  find  it  ready 
against  my  charges.  .    .    .   Fare  ye  well,  I  pray."  .    .    .  etc.^*** 

Another  letter  given  by  Deissmann,"^  tho  certainly 
not  Christian,  coming  from  the  second  century  so 
thoroughly  illustrates  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son 
(Luke  15:  11-32)  that  we  quote  a  paragraph  from  it 
here: 

"Antonis  Longus  to  Nilus  his  mother,  many  greetings.  And 
continually  do  I  pray  that  thou  art  in  health.  I  make  supplications 
for  thee  daily  to  the  Lord  Serapis.  I  would  thou  shouldst  under- 
stand {cf.  Phil.  1 :  12)  that  I  had  no  hope  that  thou  wouldst  go  up 
to  the  metropolis.  And  therefore  I  came  not  to  the  city.  But  I 
was  ashamed  to  come  to  Caranis,  because  I  walk  about  in  rags.  I 
write  to  thee  that  I  am  naked.  I  beseech  thee,  mother,  be  recon- 
ciled to  me.  ...  I  know  what  I  have  brought  upon  myself.  .  .  . 
I  know  that  I  have  sinned." 

The  verbs  ''beseech"  and  "reconcile"  are  exactly  the 
same  as  those  used  in  the  New  Testament,  while  the 
phrase  "I  have  sinned"  sounds  as  if  it  were  coming 
from  the  lips  of  the  prodigal  himself.  The  letter  con- 
tinues finding  great  fault  with  Postumus,  who  had  told 
his  mother  of  his  bad  conduct  and  had,  perhaps,  sug- 
gested that  he  had  badly  run  in  debt,  for  one  of  the  few 
remaining  sentences  that  can  be  deciphered  asks  in  very 
prodigal  fashion,  ''Knowest  thou  not  that  I  had  rather 
be  maimed  than  know  that  I  still  owe  a  man  an  obol?" 

"'  Deissmann,  op.cit.,  pp.  192-201. 
^<*  Op.  cit.,  p.  177. 


328    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Let  us  hope  for  his  mother's  sake  that  Antonis  did 
return  home  as  that  other  prodigal  of  whom  Jesus 
spoke. 

In  one  particularly  interesting  note,  which  some 
scholars  have  thought  to  be  Christian,  dating  from  the 
second  century,  Eutychides  makes  complaint  to  Helio- 
dorus  concerning  Demetrius  and  certain  other  village 
elders  ("presbyters")  who  have  been  acting,  he  says, 
like  "busybodies"  (epyo^dPovg)  having  seized  Peteus — 
probably  in  order  to  compel  him  to  pay  his  taxes."" 

As  Christian  letters  written  in  Greek  are  so  rare, 
and  therefore  so  priceless  in  interest,  we  give  here  a  few 
more  which  we  find  scattered  through  the  various  pub- 
lications. One  of  the  most  valuable  as  showing  the  hos- 
pitable Christian  "way"  in  the  fourth  century  reads  as 
follows : 

"To  the  beloved  brother  Peter : 

"Greetings  in  the  Lord.  I,  Sotas,  bid  you  receive  our  brother 
Heracles  according  to  (the  usual)  custom/"  through  whom  I  and 
those  with  me  salute  (jigoaayoQeiJOixev)  you  and  all  those  with 
you.    I  pray  that  you  be  strong  (in  good  health)  in  the  Lord.""^ 

How  the  style  of  writing  changed  for  the  worse  may 
be  seen  by  another  missive  which,  however,  is  badly 
damaged,  dating  from  a.d.  602. 

"In  the  name  of  the  Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ,  our  God 
and  Saviour  ...  to  Flavios  Apion,  the  all-illustrious  and  most 
excellent  of  consuls,  possessing  land,  and  to  the  illustrious  city  of 

'^"Amherst  Papyri,  II,  CXXXIV;  3.  Dr.  Victor  Martin  of  Geneva 
assures  me,  however,  by  private  letter  that  there  is  no  substantial  reason 
why  this  letter  should  be  ascribed  to  a  Christian  writer. 

"'"E'dog,  of  Acts6:14;  16:  2;  26:  3;  28: 17;  Lukel:9;Heb.  10:25. 

^"  Publicasioni  de  la  Societa  Italiana,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  208;  No.  209  also 
contains  a  few  words  from  Serapion,  a  Christian,  to  Herakles  (whose 
name  he  misspells)  about  a  talent  of  silver. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        329 

the  Oxyrhynchites,  through  Menas  the  servant,  who  requests  and 
procures  for  his  master  the  all-illustrious   .    .    .   Greeting !"  ^^^ 

Besides  the  Greek  letters  there  are  a  very  few 
known  written  in  vulgar  Latin,  which  seem  to  be  Chris- 
tian. One  of  these,  dating  from  the  second  century,  is 
addrest  to  a  military  tribune: 

"Greeting !  Already  aforetime  I  have  recommended  unto  thee 
Theon  my  friend,  and  now  also  I  pray,  Lord,  that  thou  mayest 
have  him  before  thine  eyes  as  myself  {cf.  Philemon,  verse  17). 
For  he  is  such  a  man  that  he  may  be  loved  by  thee.  For  he  left 
his  own  people,  his  gods  and  business,  and  followed  me.  And 
through  all  things  he  hath  kept  me  in  safety.  And  therefore  I 
pray  of  thee  that  he  may  have  entering  in  unto  thee"  {cf.  i 
Thess.,  I  :  9)."* 

While  so  few  Christian  letters  have  been  found 
written  in  Greek  or  Latin,  the  results  have  been  much 
more  favorable  so  far  as  Coptic  is  concerned.  These 
Coptic  letters  are  very  generally  written  not  on  papyrus 
but  on  potsherds;  but  the  writer  had  the  good  fortune 
to  obtain  in  Egypt  in  19 13  a  number  of  ancient  Chris- 
tian letters  written  in  Coptic  on  papyrus.  Of  several  of 
these  I  will  append  free  renderings,  being  indebted  to 
Dr.  Hyvernat  of  the  Catholic  University  of  America 
for  the  decipherment  and  preliminary  translations  of 
these  texts,  which  I  hope  may  be  edited  by  him  later : 

"Bless  (us),  our  Father.  Since  a  man  who  is  ours  is  sick,  we 
wish  to  go  and  visit  him.  May  your  mercifulness  grant  us 
something  for  a  sick  man,  so  that  God  may  multiply  his  blessing 
on  you  (and)  be  kind  to  you,  while  you  give  to  all  who  ask  you. 
Be  well  to  us  (for  our  sake)  while  you  pray  for  us  that  we  may 
be  well." 

This  shows  most  vividly  the  dependence  which  the 

""Ibid..  No.  179;  Lefebvre,  op.  cit.,  gives  the  fragments  of  a  few  more 
Christian  letters  but  they  are  too  mutilated  to  read. 
"*  Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  p.  183. 


330     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

people  placed   in   their   religious   superiors   when   they 
came  into  trouble. 

Among  these  unpublished  letters  are  several  written 
to  Father  Shenute,  and  one  very  curious  letter  written 
by  parents  to  their  son  who  was  at  the  head  of  a  monas- 
tery. This  may  be  later  than  most  of  the  letters  given 
above,  as  the  florid  style  seems  to  attest  as  well  as  the 
excessive  humility  of  the  parents. 

"Before  (further)  discourse,  our  humbleness  greets  your 
(lordly)  sonship,  honorable  in  every  manner.  In  Christ  Jesus, 
greetings ! 

"Then  we  make  known  to  you  the  well-being  of  our  house 
from  the  big  one  to  the  little  one,  and  the  well-being  of  the  whole 
village  from  the  little  one  to  the  big  one." 

This  letter  closes  by  mentioning  that  the  messenger 
who  bore  this  note  "has  told  us  of  all  the  good  things 
that  your  lordly  sonship  achieves." 

How  close  such  a  letter  as  this  brings  us  to  the  early 
Egyptian  life! 

Multitudes  of  such  letters  have  come  to  light  written 
on  pieces  of  broken  pottery  or  on  flakes  or  slices  of 
white  limestone,  the  latter  being  regarded  as  the  most 
honorable  material.  In  ecclesiastical  letters  the  limestone 
was  frequently  used,  an  apology  seldom  being  made  for 
it,  tho  such  apologies  were  often  offered  when  potsherds 
were  used.  These  ostraka  contain  a  vast  quantity  of 
business  letters,  episcopal  decisions,  petitions  to  clerics 
asking  for  prayers  because  of  illness,  and  especially  beg- 
ging letters  of  all  kinds.  The  Church  and  its  ministers 
were  evidently  regarded  as  being  open-handed,  for  here 
are  requests  for  vinegar,  flax,  oil,  rope,  clothing,  vege- 
tables, and  especially  for  bread  and  corn.  A  common 
type  of  the  begging  letter  is  that  of  John  to  Apa  Victor : 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        331 

"First  I  greet  thee,  devout  and  pious  man.  May  the  Lord 
bless  thee  and  all  that  thou  hast,  men  and  beasts.  Be  kind  and 
have  pity  upon  this  poor  man."  "* 

A  son  writes  to  his  mother  asking  her  to  send  him 
a  blanket,  as  he  has  none.  In  another,  Paul  promises 
to  provide  a  blanket  for  a  brother  in  need.  A  rather 
heart-breaking  letter  from  a  man  whose  name  is  lost, 
which  was  written  to  his  "dear  and  holy  father,"  throws 
light  on  the  material  need  of  the  early  Christians : 

"Be  so  kind  as  to  pray  for  me.  Again  I  have  told  thee  of  my 
misery.  I  tell  thee  didst  thou  know  the  plight  that  I  am  in  thy 
heart  would  be  sorely  grieved.  It  is  written  'Get  thyself  a  friend, 
but  not  friends  of  eating  and  drinking,  rather  friends  in  thy  need.' 
Never  have  I  suffered  trouble  greater  than  this  present.  Do  not 
fail  to  come  to  me  in  the  trouble  that  I  and  my  children  are  in. 
...  If  thou  hast  compassion  on  me,  thou  wilt  have  redeemed 
six  souls  from  death.  No  man  gives  me  wherewith  to  cover  me. 
.  .  .  Thy  heart  will  grieve  for  me  if  I  die  with  my  children.  .  .  . 
If  I  can  find  two  loaves  a  day  I  shall  not  die ;  if  I  find  one  I  shall 
not  die.  I  have  little  ones  and  they  .  .  .  come  weeping  to  me 
and  break  (?)  my  heart."  ^^® 

One  letter  of  a  different  nature  seems  equally  full  of 

tears: 

"Forgive  rne  the  sin  that  I  have  committed,  my  Lord,  father, 
and  my  brethren;  for  it  is  great  and  ye  are  pitiful.  Indeed 
through  shame  I  am  not  able  to  say,  Forgive  me."  "^ 

It  must  be  said,  however,  that  there  was  rather  an 
affectation  of  sinfulness  and  humility  very  common  in 
the  sixth  century,  as  some  of  the  expressions  in  letters 
from  "Peter  the  little"  and  "this  humble  and  wretched 
sinner"  show  very  clearly.    A  few  suggestions  as  to  the 

'"*  W.  E.  Crum,  Coptic  Ostraca,  No.  75.  It  is  strange  that  in  Wilcken's 
great  work,  Griechische  Osiraka,  1899,  giving  1624  documents,  there  is  not 
a  single  letter  so  far  as  I  can  find  having  any  Christian  interest. 

""Ibid.,  No.  254. 

"'/6tU,  No.  275. 


332     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

habits  of  the  early  Christians  light  up  the  ordinary  dul- 
ness  of  these  very  commonplace  letters.  One  man 
writes : 

"Excuse  me  that  I  can  not  find  papyrus,  as  I  am  in  the 
country."  "* 

In  one  note  one  Christian  writes  another:  "Thou 
knowest  that  we  prayed  together." 

One  parishioner  expresses  surprize  that  his  pastor 
had  not  visited  him  in  his  sickness. 

Very  many  of  the  letters  contain  requests  for 
books  to  read.  It  is  probable  that  it  was  some  book  of 
the  Bible  that  was  generally  desired,  but  certainly  in 
one  case  a  medical  work  was  asked  for  (No.  253).  On 
one  piece  of  broken  pot  a  theological  student  has  given 
a  list  of  the  apostles  in  which  Philip  is  said  to  be  the 
son  of  a  charioteer,  and  on  another  shred  there  is  the 
record  of  a  priest  who  has  been  excommunicated — 
probably  for  making  boys  drunk  (No.  47). 

The  general  poverty  of  the  times  and  its  financial 
ruin  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  one  man  promises  if  he 
fails  in  his  business  agreement  he  will  pay  ''five  baskets 
of  bronze  money."  It  appears  that  thousands  of  these 
bronze  coins  were  received  to  equal  one  large  silver  coin. 

It  is  suggestive  to  observe  that  a  thousand  or  more 
years  ago  (as  two  thousand  years  earlier),  in  legal 
documents  ''word  of  God"  meant  the  decree  of  God's 
ministers  or  of  God's  Church: 

"Lo  here  is  the  word  of  God  to  thee ;  thou  mayest  come  and 
gather  thy  dates  and  no  one  shall  hinder  thee."  ^^^ 

""Crurn,  op.  cit..  No.  129;  See  also  Nos.  97,  212,  332,  374.  Papnoute  be- 
ing unable  to  write,  signs  with  three  crosses. 
"» Crum,  op.  cit.,  p.  100. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       333 

One  ostrakon,  which  evidently  represents  a  practise 
exercise  for  young  monks,  well  expresses  the  duty  of  a 
preacher  of  the  gospel  as  these  early  Christians  under- 
stood it : 

"He  was  sent  to  all  men,  to  the  flock  of  the  faithful,  to  the 
dwelling  of  the  Son  of  God  to  bring  old  men  to  God,  little  children 
to  the  Church,  to  pasture  the  sheep  of  God,  to  tame  the  antelope, 
etc."  120 

Such  are  samples  of  the  goodly  number  of  Christian 
letters  which  have  been  recovered  from  the  dusty  past 
in  our  generation.  As  a  whole  these  private  notes  speak 
well  for  the  early  Christians.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  ordinary  mail  of  modern  followers  of  the 
Man  of  Galilee  would  give  better  testimony  to  spiritu- 
ality. It  is  noticeable  that  few  of  these  ancient  letters 
deal  with  theological  questions.  Only  occasionally  has 
there  been  any  autograph  preserved  to  us  from  a  man 
distinguished  in  his  generation  for  scholarship  or  piety, 
and  very  few  mention  any  of  the  great  church  move- 
ments. The  ordinary  Christian  then  as  now  was 
especially  interested  only  in  what  touched  his  own  life. 
Yet  a  very  few  letters  have  fortunately  been  found 
which  enable  us  better  to  appreciate  the  intellectual 
struggles  of  those  early  days  and  the  splendid  leader- 
ship which  sought  to  protect  that  early  Church  from 
superstition. 

Among  such  letters  attention  may  be  called  to  one 
just  found,  written  by  Theodore  of  Egypt,  in  which  he 
refers  to  the  "Canon  of  the  Books  of  Holy  Scripture" 
reported  to  the  Church  by  Athanasius,  the  archbishop 
of  Alexandria,  in  the  very  year  in  which  this  letter  was 
written  (a.d.  326-328).    Theodore  praises  Athanasius, 

"^  Amherst  Papyri,  II.,  CXXXIV. 


334    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

calling  him  *'a  son  of  the  holy  apostles  .  .  .  who 
taketh  care  of  the  flock  of  the  Lord,  giving  them  nour- 
ishment in  due  season"  and  preserving  them  from  "the 
lying  waters  of  which  so  many  drank" — that  is,  the 
apocryphal  books  to  which  were  falsely  given  "the  name 
and  age  of  the  holy  books."  ^^^ 

While  we  can  afiford  in  this  era  to  be  more  chari- 
table in  our  judgment  of  the  apocryphal  writings,  yet  it 
is  a  good  tonic  to  sensitive  nerves  to  read  these  positive 
words  from  a  letter  written  some  sixteen  centuries  ago. 

10.  Liturgical  Fragments  and  Biblical 
Quotations 

When  in  1910  there  were  published  the  sixth-cen- 
tury litany  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  191 1  the  new 
manuscript  containing  Origen's  comments  on  the 
Apocalypse,  and  in  191 3  the  new  Armenian  text  of 
Irenseus,  it  was  found  that  these  newly  recovered  docu- 
ments were  a  mass  of  scripture  texts.  This  is  practically 
true  of  all  ancient  ecclesiastical  documents.  Whether 
one  examines  the  newly  found  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla, 
.or  the  Passion  of  St.  Perpetua,  that  "most  beautiful  of 
all  the  records  of  Christian  martyrdom";  or  the  newly 
found  second-century  Christian  dialog  (a.d.  155)  be- 
tween Bishop  Athanasius  and  Zacchseus  the  Jew,  in 
which  the  Christian  defends  the  thesis  that  "Christ  is 
God,  yet  there  are  not  two  Gods";  or  any  other  of  the 
recently  recovered  church  writings  from  the  ancient 
past,  nothing  is  more  impressive  than  the  multitude  of 
Biblical  quotations  or  references,  which  appear  every- 
where in  early  Christian  literature  like  the  miraculous 

'"  Museon,  New  Series,  XL,  205. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       335 

draught  of  fishes/'^  Sometimes  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
whether  these  fragmentary  Greek  papyri  are  leaves  of 
ancient  Bibles  or  whether  they  are  portions  of  sermons 
or  letters,  or  church  rituals.  We  will  give  a  few 
samples  of  the  way  in  which  these  quotations  appear. 
In  1887,  Dr.  Charles  Wessely  published  a  fragment 
from  the  third  century  found  in  the  collection  of  Arch- 
duke Rainer  relative  to  the  denial  of  St.  Peter,  which 
contained  an  exact  quotation  of  Mark  14:  26.  Its  back 
adhered  to  a  contract  of  a  lease  dating  from  the 
Emperor  Alexander  Severus  (a.d.  221-235).  The  frag- 
ment reads: 

"You  shall  all  be  offended  this  night,  as  it  is  written,  I  will 
smite  the  shepherd,  and  the  sheep  will  be  scattered ;  but  Peter  said, 
Although  even  all,  yet  not  I,  and  Jesus  saith,  Before  the  cock 
crow  twice  thou  shall  deny  me  thrice."  ^^^ 

In  1906  the  same  author  published  an  ecclesiastical 
papyrus  (third  century)  from  Akhmim  containing  two 
passages  from  our  gospels  (Luke  2:  34;  John  9:  39), 
one  of  these  being  an  exact  word-for-word  quotation : 

"I  pray  that  the  named  be  not  lead  to  his  humiliation,  but  to 
his  salvation.  But  when  he  does  not  understand  this  that  is  said 
for  his  salvation,  let  this  be  for  his  judgment  (xQi[ia).  Jesus 
himself  has  taught  that  his  presence  is  to  exercise  judgment,  in 
order  that  those  who  see  not  shall  see,  and  those  that  see  shall 
become  blind.  The  same  words  of  the  gospel  show  that  Jesus 
has  not  come  only  for  the  rising  but  also  for  the  downfall :  'Be- 
hold he  is  placed  for  an  occasion  of  falling  and  for  rising.  .  .  . 
pay  attention  that  these  words  be  not  said  for  your  falling.'  "  ^^* 

^'  For  these  and  manj^  other  newly  recovered  works  see  Armitage 
Robinson  in  Texts  and  Studies,  Vol.  I-VIII,  and  Harnack,  Texte  und  Un- 
tersuchungen  znr  Geschichte  der  altchristlichen  Literatur,  Vol.  I-XI. 

'^Wessely,   Les  plus  anciens  tnonuments  du  Chris tianisme  ecrits  sur 
papyrus,  1906,  No.  14. 
"^Ibid.,  No.  20. 


336     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

In  1903  Grenfell  and  Hunt  published  some  Christian 
fragments  from  the  second  and  third  century,  and 
among"  them  was  one  which  contained  a  perfect  quota- 
tion of  Matt.  3:  16-17,  describing  the  baptism  of  Jesus, 
the  words  from  the  heavenly  voice  being  indicated  by 
wedge-shaped  quotation  marks.  Perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  this  class  of  discoveries  are  the  many 
fragments  of  the  early  Fathers  and  other  early  writings 
of  the  Christian  Church  specially  revered,  which  are  full 
of  Scriptural  thought  and  phraseology.  Among  these 
ought  particularly  to  be  mentioned  the  second  epistle  of 
Clement  of  Rome,  found  by  Bryennios  in  1875,  "prob- 
ably written  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century" ;  ^"^  the 
probably  third  century  Greek  text  of  Irenoeus  against 
Heresies;  ^"^  and  the  later  but  very  important  and  newly 
discovered  Scholia  of  Origen  on  the  Apocalypse,  first 
published  in  1911;^^^  the  lost  Commentary  of 
Qicumenius  (about  a.d.  600)  on  the  same  Biblical 
book  f^  and  a  sixth  century  copy  of  the  Nicene  Creed.^''' 
This  is  nearly  the  same  as  our  version — variations  are 
slight — and  fortunately  the  scribe  writes  at  the  end 
of  it  in  brown  ink,  his  personal  confession  of  faith : 

"This  is  my  creed,  and  with  this  language  (I  shall  approach 
without  fear)  the  terrible  judgment  seat  of  the  Lord  Christ  in 
that  dread  day  when  he  shall  come  again  in  his  own  glory  to  judge 
the  quick  and  the  dead  and  to  reign  with  his  saints  forever  and 
ever,  Amen." 

Another  papyrus  of  the  fifth  century  classed  as  a 

"*Kenyon,  Bible  and  Ancient  Monuments,  Appendix, 

"'  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  cf.  Barnard's  "Examination  of  the  Biblical 
Quotations  made  by  Clement  of  Alexandria"  in  Texts  and  Studies,  Vol. 
v.,  pp.  899#. 

''■'  Harnack,  Texte  und  Untersuchungen  cur  .  .  .  altchrist.  Lit.;  see  also 
the  new  Armenian  text,  ibid.,  XXXVI. 

'"^  See  American  Journal  of  Philology  XXXIV,  1913,  3-301. 

"'Papyri  in  John  Ryland's  Library,  No.  6. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        2>2>7 

"liturgical  fragment,"  tho  it  may  be  from  a  private  book 
of  devotion,  reads  i^^" 

"Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  of  such  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  On  Thee  do  I  wait  all  the  day.  Remember  thy 
tender  mercies,  O  Lord  .  .  .  Saviour,  keep  me,  O  Lord,  as  the 
apple  of  thine  eyes  .  .  .  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  gracious 
God,  and  save  me." 

"The  most  unique  of  all  the  new  ecclesiastical 
documents  is  the  calendar  of  church  services  at 
Oxyrhynchus  a.d.  535-536,  discovered  in  1905-6,  and 
first  published  in  1915.^^^  This  contains  a  list  of 
the  services  at  the  various  churches  in  Oxyrhyn- 
chus on  Sundays  and  holy  days  during  a  period  of  five 
months.  Twenty-six  different  churches  are  mentioned, 
and  these  special  episcopal  services  are  given  for  sixty- 
two  different  days,  including  Christmas  and  the  various 
Sundays  of  Lent,  the  day  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  etc. 
It  is  noticeable  that  the  Virgin  and  St.  Euphemia  are 
the  only  two  female  saints  honored  by  special  services. 
A  church  was  also  named  after  the  latter  saint,  as  well 
as  after  St.  Justus,  St.  Menas,  St.  Philoxenus,  and 
several  lesser  martyrs;  there  were  besides  churches  of 
St.  Mary,  St.  Michael,  St.  Gabriel,  St.  Jeremiah,  St. 
Zachariah,  "the  Baptist,"  "the  Evangelist"  (St. 
John)  and  others.  The  calendar  is  too  technical  to  be 
quoted.  No  Scripture  quotations  occur  in  this  docu- 
ment because  of  its  character. 

One  class  of  works  regularly  read  with  the  liturgies 
in  the  monasteries  dealt  with  the  lives  of  saints  and 
martyrs  who  died  because  of  their  loyalty  to  the  Bible 
and  the  Church.    A  number  of  these  have  recently  been 

'"^Ihid,  No.  8.  cf.  No.  9. 

"*  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  XL,  No.  1387. 


338    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

recovered.     The  style  of  this  not  altogether  commend- 
able literature  may  be  judged  from  the  following: 

STOJIY  OF  THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  S.  CHRISTINA 

"  Tf  you  do  not  go  and  sacrifice  .  .  .  I  order  heavy  penalties, 
and  the  one  who  was  put  to  death  by  the  Jews,  whom  you  serve, 
shall  not  rescue  you.'  " 

"And  the  saint  looking  up  into  the  sky  and  laughing  strangely, 
said  to  Urbarius :  .  .  .  you  do  not  know  that  the  Son  of  the 
living  God,  the  Light  of  truth  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  has 
come  down  from  the  heaven  to  put  away  all  iniquity  from  the 
world  in  order  to  save  us,  and  now  through  him,  the  Lord  who 
saves  me,  I  endure  all  these  things,  so  as  to  overcome  your  power 
.  .  .  '  But  her  father  Urbanus  .  .  .  ordered  the  wheel  to 
be  brought  and  the  holy  Christian  to  be  placed  upon  it  and  fire  to 
be  kindled  under  it  and  oil  to  be  poured  to  make  it  burn  .  .  . 
and  when  ,  .  .  the  wheel,  turned  around,  had  broken  the  whole 
body,  the  holy  Christian  .  .  .  prayed  saying:  I  bless  thee,  thou 
God  in  the  heaven,  and  I  thank  thee,  thou  Father  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ;  do  not  leave  me  forever,  but  stretch  out  the  hand 
and  take  hold  of  the  fire  and  quench  .  .  .  that  Urbanus  the 
tyrant  may  never  rejoice  over  me  .  .  .  the  fire  came  forth  sud- 
denly and  slew  1,500  idolaters  .  .  .  and  the  holy  Christian  was 
resting  upon  the  wheel  as  upon  a  bed,"  etc.,  etc.^^^ 

ACTS  OF  MARTYRDOM  OF  PAPNOUTIOS 

"...  the  maiden  said  to  her  mistress,  Come  out  and  see 
.  .  .  the  man  called  Father  Papnoutios,  who  is  the  one  doing 
wonderful  things  before  the  ruler.  And  .  .  .  she  saw  Father 
Papnoutios  standing  as  an  angel  of  God  and  he  struck  the  .  .  . 
she  saluted  (worshipped)  him  saying,  Truly  my  life  is  not  equal 
to  the  joy  that  has  taken  hold  of  me.  And  then  she  took  hold  of 
his  hand  and  kissed  (it)  saying,  The  Lord  be  magnified  because 
thou  hast  come  under  my  roof  this  day,  and  she  placed  for  him 
a  chair  of  silver.  But  Father  Papnoutios  laughed  and  said  to  her, 
Daughter,  these  silver  and  gold  things  give  me  no  gain  .  .  .  but 
hear  me,  daughter,  and  choose  for  thyself  the  life  of  the  angels, 

"^  Fifth  century  papyrus  in  Publicasioni  de  la  Societd  Italiana,  Vol. 
I.,  No.  27. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS       339 

.  .  .  and  her  daughter  .  .  .  came  out  from  her  chamber  bring- 
ing a  costly  garment  and  having  a  golden  diadem  upon  her  head. 
But  Father  Papnoutios  sat  upon  the  ground  and  they  sat  at  his 
feet  and  he  says  .  .  .  Children,  forsake  vain  wealth,  for  it  is 
written  .    .    ."^^^ 

While  the  Scripture  references  in  the  above  narra- 
tive are  lost,  many  documents  remain,  giving  these 
quotations  so  voluminously  as  to  prove  conclusively  that 
these  primitive  Christians  were  great  Bible  students. 
One  paper  whose  title  seems  to  have  been  Notes  on 
Famous  Biblical  Texts  (sixth  century)  refers  to  Matt. 
25:  I ^.;  12:  32;  16:  19 — but  the  "notes"  are  scant,  tho 
the  precious  Bible  words  are  written  out  fully.^^* 

While  the  discoveries  of  Greek  documents  have 
given  us  such  treasures,  the  finds  so  far  as  Coptic 
liturgical  texts  are  concerned  are  even  greater,  many  of 
these  being  translations  from  Greek  originals.  Among 
these  may  be  mentioned  particularly  the  Acts  or  Canons 
of  the  Council  of  Nicola  (which  Hyvernat  accepts  as 
genuine)  ;  Acts  of  the  Council  of  Ephesus  and  Memoirs 
of  Dioscurus,  a  fragment  of  a  great  work  by  St. 
Epiphanius;  the  lost  Festal  Letters  of  St.  Athanasius; 
a  panegyric  of  St.  George,  by  Bishop  Theodosius;  and 
Encomiums  of  Severus  on  St.  Michael;  and  especially 
an  Ecclesiastical  History  in  twelve  books — one  so  early 
that  it  was  used  by  Eusebius,  the  "father  of  Church 
history." 

Many  church  disciplines  have  recently  been  dis- 
covered in  Coptic,  including  the  "Ecclesiastical  Canons 
and  Canons  of  the  Apostles  f^  the  canons  of  Hippolytus 
described  by  Hyvernat  but  as  yet  not  published;  and 

*^/6irf.  No.  28. 

'**  Papyri  della  Societd  Italiana,  I.,  No.  65. 

"*Eng.  translation  by  G.  Horner,  1904. 


340     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  canons  of  St.  Athanasius  and  St.  Basil  edited  by  W. 
E.  Crum,  1904. 

A  complete  edition  of  the  Coptic  (Sahidic)  liturgy- 
was  prepared  by  Dr.  H.  Hyvernat,  with  full  translation 
in  Latin,  in  1909.  All  of  these  liturgies  are  full  of 
Scripture  quotations.  The  J.  P.  Morgan  collection, 
discovered  in  19 10,  also  contains  a  complete  lectionary, 
breviary,  and  antiphonary  in  this  same  dialect. 

These  ecclesiastical  documents  not  only  quote  much 
Scripture  but  also  throw  an  enormous  light  on  the  life 
of  the  Church.  Dr.  G.  Horner  has  recently  published 
the  Statutes  of  the  Apostles  or  Canones  Ecclesiastici 
(1904),  from  which  we  give  a  few  suggestions  of  the 
early  church  life  as  seen  from  these  liturgies.  No 
catechumen  could  be  a  painter  or  sculptor,  go  to  the 
theater,  nor  train  men  for  pugilism  or  war.^^^  No  Chris- 
tian is  allowed  to  be  a  soldier.  No  Christian  could  wear 
lascivious  clothes  or  ornaments,  or  wear  phylacteries, 
or  drink  magical  potions.  All  believers  are  urged  to 
bring  bread  and  wine  for  the  Eucharist.  Prayers  are 
made  over  the  bread  that  it  may  become  the  body  of  the 
Lord  Christ,  or  according  to  one  recession,  the  "form 
of  the  flesh  of  Christ."  Exorcism  and  the  breathing 
upon  the  candidates  that  they  may  receive  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  mentioned.  All  are  excluded  from  "the  mys- 
teries" who  eat  with  heretics  or  adulterers  or  those  de- 
voted "to  the  world."  A  long  catalog  of  reasons  is 
given  for  not  working  on  the  Sabbaths — "Sabbaths" 
presumably  including  both  Saturday  and  Sunday. 

Among  the  special  commandments  are: 

"Thou  shalt  not  corrupt  young  children,  thou  shalt  not  be  a 

"'The  Jewish  Church  also  opposed  painting  and  sculpture,  which  was 
devoted  to  idol  making;  and  the  theater,  which  was  a  murderous  as  well 
as  an  idolatrous  show.    Texts  and  Studies,  VHP,  p.  27. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        341 

soothsayer,  star-gazer,  or  magician,  thoii  slialt  not  kill  young 
babes,  after  birth ;  thou  shalt  not  be  a  speaker  against  any,  and 
thou  shalt  not  think  about  doing  evil." 

Of  bishops  it  is  said  that  they  shall  be  "without  sin, 
without  anger,  lovers  of  the  poor,  not  lovers  of  the 
greater  share  for  himself."  Widows  in  limited  numbers 
are  permitted  ordination  (by  words,  not  by  the  laying 
on  of  hands)  in  order  to  devote  themselves  to  prayer 
for  those  in  affliction,  and  to  stay  with  women  who  are 
suffering.     Of  laymen  it  is  said: 

"The  lay  people  shall  do  the  commandment  which  is  told  them, 
with  cheerfulness,  and  they  shall  obey  those  who  devote  them- 
selves to  the  altar  .  .  .  and  ye  shall  not  have  enmity  one  with 
another  .  .  .  but  rather  shall  each  one  hasten  in  his  work  ac- 
cording as  it  has  been  given  him  from  God." 

Of  baptism  it  is  said:  "Candidates  shall  be  baptized 
naked"  (i.e.,  only  with  the  undergarment),  the  little 
children  first,  "and  if  they  can  speak  for  themselves,  let 
them  speak;  but  if  they  can  not,  their  parents  shall 
answer  for  them,  or  one  of  their  relatives."  No  adult 
was  allowed  baptism  until  "he  had  learned  the  Psalm." 
The  minister  prayed  concerning  the  candidate  that  the 
Savior  might  "open  the  ear  of  his  heart,  and  enlighten 
the  eyes  of  his  mind,  and  give  to  him  the  light  of 
knowledge  and  impart  to  him  the  washing  of  regenera- 
tion for  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  making  him  the  temple 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  etc.,  etc. 
The  ordinary  baptism  was  by  dipping  three  times,  but 
if  the  candidate  was  weak,  pouring  was  allowed.  The 
confession  made  by  the  candidate  was  as  follows : 

"I  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  and  in  his  only 
son,  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  giver 
of  life  to  all  creation,  the  Trinity  equal  in  God-head,  one  Lord 


342     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

and  one  kingdom  ;  one  faith,  and  one  baptism,  in  the  Holy  Church 
CathoHc,  and  life  eternal.    Amen." 

Such  was  the  early  Ethiopic  liturgy."^  While  few 
direct  quotations  are  made  in  some  of  these  ecclesiastical 
documents,  it  is  plain  that  they  rest  solidly  upon  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures,  as  they  interpreted  it. 

Not  only  the  papyri  but  also  ordinary  inscriptions 
connected  with  official  and  private  buildings  dating  from 
the  early  Christian  era  contain  many  Biblical  quotations. 
M.  Gustave  Lefebvre,  in  1907,  published  808  such  in- 
scriptions gathered  from  all  parts  of  Egypt  during  six 
years  or  more  of  careful  work.  Of  these  three  of  the 
most  ancient  (Nos.  34,  35,  54),  dating  from  a.d.  148- 
159,  are  doubtfully  Christian;  but  two  others  of  the 
fourth  century,  three  of  the  fifth  century  and  sixty-two 
of  the  sixth  century  are  almost  certainly  Christian.  Of 
these  808  inscriptions  sixteen  are  New  Testament 
texts  (Matt.  3:3;  5:  13;  9:27;  19:  18;  25:34;  Mark 
1:3;  10:19,  47,  48;  Luke  18:38;  23:42;  John  8:  12; 
10:  25;  14:  6),  and  certain  other  formulae  are  certainly 
based  on  expressions  used  in  Corinthians,  Colossians, 
Ephesians,  Timothy,  and  Hebrews.  While  these  texts 
are  on  the  walls  of  buildings  or  portals  of  churches  or 
engraved  on  stone  tablets  or  lamps  or  bronze  crosses 
and  are  not  in  any  sense  portions  of  ancient  Bibles, 
they  vividly  disclose  the  constancy  with  which  the  early 
Christians  used  their  new  Testaments. 

Altho  they  may  not  illustrate  this  point  quite  as  well 
as  some  other  examples,  we  give  here  a  few  very  re- 
cently discovered  texts: 

"Lord,  grant  repose  to  the  soul  of  the  servant  Thekla,  summon 

"'  For  the  modern  form  see  The  Ethiopic  Liturgy,  Rev.  S.  A.  Mercer, 
1915.  This  entire  liturgy  should  be  compared  with  the  Didache. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        343 

her  to  the  bosom  of  Abram  and  Isaac  and  Jacob  and  feed  her  upon 
the  tree  of  Hfe,  hearing  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit 
the  kingdom  made  ready  for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world." 

"God,  the  All-Conqueror,  the  one  that  is,  that  was,  that  is  to 
be,  Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  remember  the 
sleep  and  rest  of  thy  servant  Zoneese,  the  most  devout  and  loving- 
the-commandments,  and  deem  her  worthy  to  tabernacle  through 
thy  holy  and  light-bearing  Archangel  Michael,  in  the  bosom  of 
the  holy  fathers,  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  because  thine  is 
the  glory  and  the  power  to  the  ages  of  the  ages.  Amen,  she  lived 
blamelessly  seventy-seven  years   ..."  ^^^ 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  BibHcal  references 
to  be  found  in  the  ancient  sermons.^^' 

Many  liturgical  Greek  fragments  have  been  re- 
covered from  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  telling  of  the 
adventures  of  Christian  saints,  condemned  to  starvation, 
etc.,  and  a  good  many  texts  so  broken  that  one  hardly 
knows  whether  they  are  private  Christian  letters  or 
official  church  documents."" 

A  great  multitude  of  Christian  documents  written 
in  Coptic  but  not  strictly  liturgical,  dating  from  near 
A.D.  600,  have  also  recently  been  published.  Here,  for 
example,  is  a  dialog  in  which  different  interpretations 
are  proposed  of  various  passages  in  the  gospels,  such 
as  the  miracle  at  Cana,  the  temptation  of  Jesus,  etc. 
These  interpretations  are  not  critical  but  aim  to  be 
practical,  as  where,  under  John  9:  3,  the  expositor  says: 
"The  pool  of  Siloam  is  the  Church;  the  waters  are  the 
waters  of  holy  baptism."  "^ 

"*  (A.D.  409.) 

'™Pp.  260#;  and  see  further  Homily  of  Pope  Liberius,  reported  by 
Lefort  (which  quotes  from  Matt,  Mark,  Rom.  and  2  Tim.)  in  Museon 
XII.,  1. 

^*'One,  e.g.,  speaks  of  the  "terrible  judgment  seat  of  Christ  our  God." 
Greek  Papyri  in  the  John  Rylands  Library,  Vol.  I,  No.  8,  cf.  Nos.  10,  11. 

'"  Crum,  Anecdota  Oxoniensis,  No.  12. 


344     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

There  are  many  accounts  of  martyrdom  that  have 
recently  come  to  Hght,  one  representing  Diocletian  being 
inspired  by  the  devil  in  the  guise  of  a  serpent;  another 
narrating  with  eagerness  the  tortures  of  the  martyrs 
crowned  with  red  hot  helmets  or  boiled,  after  strips 
were  cut  from  their  back,  etc."^  They  thought  too 
much  of  the  martyrs  in  the  sixth  century,  as  is  shown 
by  many  texts  such  as,  "Let  us  pray  the  holy  martyr 
of  Christ,  Apa  Moni,  that  he  guide  us  in  this  sea  that 
is  full  of  trouble."  "^  Yet  they  talk  and  write  re- 
ligiously and  quote  Scripture  voluminously.  Even  the 
ostraka  give  us  some  material  of  value.  A  "Confes- 
sion of  Faith,"  which  was  written  over  1300  years  ago, 
shows  the  careful  theological  discrimination  attempted 
in  that  era: 

"We  confess  a  Trinity  which  is  in  a  Unity,  namely  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  three  persons  {'vnoaxdaEK;) ,  of 
whom  One  took  flesh  for  our  salvation,  namely,  the  Son.  Yet 
each  one  of  these  Persons  is  a  thing  apart  not  in  the  others."  ^** 

Compare  also  the  following  ancient  Sanctus  in  which 
occurs  the  passage: 

"That  he  may  make  them  all  worship  him  .  .  .  Thy  beloved 
and  holy  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  the  First-born  oi  all  creation 
(who  is  also  co-essential  with  thee),  who  didst  make  us  heirs  of 
these  (good  things  by  his  precious  blood;  we  give  thanks  to  thee, 
the  incorruptible,  unapproachable,  unsearchable,)  inexpressible 
(God  Almighty)^  ,  .  .  Before  thee  stand  .  .  .  the  many-eyed 
cherubim  and  seraphim,  each  having  six  wings  (and  with  twain 
veiling  their  face,  because)  they  fear  to  look  upon  thee,  Image  of 
the  Invisible  .  .  .  shouting  and  saying,  Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord 
God  Almighty,  which  was  and  is  and  is  to  come."  ^*^ 

""Crurn,  op.  cit.,  Nos.  17,  18. 

'**  Crum's  Coptic  Ostraka,  1902,  No.  1. 

"*/&id..  No.  3. 

"='/&{rf..  No.  4. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTI/VN  DOCUMENTS        345 

The  ostraka  used  as  lesson  tables  in  the  schools  con- 
tain many  direct  Biblical  quotations:  e.g.,  Rom. 
16:  10-12,  and  the  story  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery, 
John  8:9-11;  2  Cor.  4:  18;  5:5;  Matt.  5:  13.  A  very 
great  multitude  of  "copy-books"  and  "exercise  books" 
from  the  early  Christian  centuries  have  been  preserved 
to  us  from  Egypt.  Most  of  the  literary  exercises  con- 
sist of  quotations  of  Scripture  such  as  the  above  or  of 
religious  sentiments  such  as: 

"The  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  conquers.    Amen."  ^*® 
"Jesus  Christ.  Alleluia.    O  Eternal  Life."  ^" 

Among  the  many  spelling  books  and  grammatical 

and  arithmetical  exercises  in  Greek  and  Coptic  have 

also  been  preserved  a  few  school-boy  compositions  which 

are  attempts  to  copy  Bible  models.     One  of  these  from 

a  boy  by  the  name  of  Enoch  starts  in  with  an  attempt 

to  reproduce  a  religious  legend  but  closes  up  with  a 

rebuke  written  in  another  hand,  evidently  that  of  the 

school  master — showing  that  the  copying  of  a   "holy 

legend"  had  not  kept  this  lad  out  of  mischief: 

"As  Jesus  went  out  of  the  gate  of  Paradise  he  saw  a  vine 
which  wept  and  was  giving  forth  tears.  He  spake  saying:  'Why 
does  the  vine  weep  and  give  forth  tears  ?'  It  spake  saying :  .  .  . 
Tt  has  pierced  my  eye  ...  I  have  raised  my  eyes  to  heaven' 
.    .    .   Enoch,  don't  throw  your  pen  on   .    .    . "  "^ 

Several  documents  of  excommunication  have  been 

discovered,  the  usual  form  being: 

"M.  M.  shall  be  anathema,  to  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost 
and  to  the  Christian  community,  and  his  house  shall  be  ana- 
thema." "9 

***Hall,  Coptic  and  Greek  Texts,  p.  34. 
^"Tlieban  Ostraka,  p.  211. 

'*'  Coptic  Ostraca,  p.  149.    This  is  probably  a  little  later  than  the  sixth 
century. 

"'Ibid., -No.  135,  cf.  No.  78. 


346     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

An  episcopal  letter  is  extant  which  forbids  com- 
munion to  a  whole  village  until  one  of  its  leading  magis- 
trates shall  *'pay  the  man  what  is  his."  In  other  docu- 
ments litigation  among  Christians  is  prohibited  under 
fine. 

One  edict  of  excommunication,  much  more  elabo- 
rate, is  quoted  by  Deissmann  ^'^''  from  a  bishop  named 
Abraham.  The  episcopal  letter  is  written  to  the  clergy 
of  his  Egyptian  diocese  and  has  to  do  with  the  sin  of  a 
man  named  Psate  who  had  been  oppressing  the  poor. 
It  is  written  in  Coptic  about  a.d.  600,  on  a  piece  of 
pottery,  and  contains  several  expressions  that  might 
make  good  copy  for  a  modern  episcopal  address: 

"He  that  oppresseth  his  neighbor  is  altogether  reprobate ;  and 
he  is  Hke  unto  Judas,  who  rose  from  supper  with  his  Lord  and 
betrayed  him,  as  it  is  written,  He  that  eateth  my  bread  hath  lifted 
up  his  heel  against  me. 

"He  that  oppresseth  his  neighbor  is  altogether  reprobate,  and 
he  is  like  unto  the  man  to  whom  Jesus  said,  Tt  were  better  for  him 
if  he  had  not  been  born'  (that  is,  Judas). 

"He  that  oppresseth  his  neighbor  is  altogether  reprobate,  and 
he  is  like  unto  them  that  spat  in  his  face  and  smote  him  on  the 
head. 

"He  that  oppresseth  his  neighbor,  is  reprobate,  and  he  is  like 
unto  Gehazi,  unto  whom  the  leprosy  of  Naaman  did  cleave,  and 
unto  his  seed. 

"He  that  oppresseth  his  neighbor  is  altogether  reprobate,  and 
he  is  like  unto  Cain,  who  slew  his  brother,"  etc. 

The  phrases  used  above  are  evidently  stereotyped, 
so  that  this  was  not  the  only  instance  in  which  dis- 
cipline was  carried  out  in  ancient  times  for  this  crime — 
and  the  language  is  almost  wholly  Scriptural. 

It  is  evident  that  these  various  official  Christian 
documents  which  represent  not  simply  the  feeling  of 

"•  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  1910,  p.  216. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        347 

an  individual  but  the  thought  of  the  Church  are  quite 
as  important  as  private  letters,  perhaps  even  more  im- 
portant. 

We  find  coming  from  the  era  of  Constantine  the  fol- 
lowing beautiful  tribute  to  several  Christians  who  had 
proved  their  constancy  by  a  martyr's  death : 

"Ploution  the  blessed  celibate  (jtaQOevcov)  having  borne  wit- 
ness .  .  .  became  a  martyr  in  the  nineteenth  year  and  fell 
asleep  aged  forty-one.  He  went  to  the  land  of  the  blessed  having 
two  crowns.  Similarly  Berekon  a  self-controlled  {iyy.Qaxr\q)  man 
(cf.  Titus  1:8)  became  a  martyr  and  fell  asleep  aged  thirty-six. 
Likewise  also  his  son  Konon  a  neophyte."  ^^^ 

This  inscription  is  most  remarkable,  since  it  is  a 
relic  of  two  heretofore  unknown  martyrs  of  the  epoch 
of  Diocletian.  The  text  can  not  be  much  posterior  to 
the  year  300,  and  M.  de  Ricci  even  calls  it  the  most 
ancient  Christian  inscription  from  Egypt.  One  of  the 
most  suggestive  features  is  the  mention  of  the  future 
life  in  a  phrase  which  was  constantly  used  in  the 
classics,  and  the  further  mention  of  "two  crowns" 
which  the  Christian  was  to  receive,  which  must  be  a 
reference  to  2  Tim.  4:  8  and  James  i :  12,  or  to  Heb. 
2:7. 

While  we  will  later  analyze  the  multitudes  of  Chris- 
tian epitaphs  which  are  to  be  found  in  many  lands  dat- 
ing from  the  second  to  the  sixth  centuries,  it  may  be 
well  under  the  present  caption  to  notice  the  liturgical 
language  and  Biblical  pre-suppositions  continuing  in 
every  century  through  all  these  Christian  epitaphs : 

EPITAPH  OF  MARIANOS  (7th-9th  Centuries) 
"The  God  of  the  Spirits  and  of  all  flesh  who  hast  abolished 
death  and  the  grave  (Hades),  and  hast  graciously  given  life  to 
the  world ;  give  repose  to  thy  servant  Marianos  in  the  bosom  of 
'"  M,  de  Ricci  in  Revue  Epigraphique,  1913,  No.  10. 


348     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  (in  the  Bright  Place,  in  the  Place  of 
Rest)." 

EPITAPH  OF  JOHN  THE  DEACON  (8th  Century) 
"Oh  how  dreadful  is  this  separation !  Oh  departure  to  the 
strange  land,  whicl>  removes  one  for  all  time.  Oh  condition  of 
Hades,  how  do  we  come  to  thy  gate !  Oh  death,  name  bitter  in 
the  mouth  of  all  beings,  which  cutteth  off,  which  sundereth 
fathers  from  their  children,  and  children  from  their  fathers.  Let 
all  who  love  to  weep  for  their  dead  come  to  this  place  and  mourn 
greatly." 

THE  EPITAPH  OF  HELENE  (nth  Century) 

"With  God  fell  asleep  in  Christ  Jesus  the  deceased,  Helene 
.  .  .  May  the  God  of  the  Spirits  and  the  Lord  of  all  flesh  give 
repose  to  the  soul  of  thy  servant  in  the  place  of  rest.    Amen."  ^^^* 

GREEK  EPITAPH  OF  MENA  (8th  Century  or  later) 
"By  the  command  of  God,  who  ruleth  both  the  quick  and  the 
dead,  the  deceased  Mena  reached  the  end  of  this  life   .    .    .   Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  rest  the  soul  of  thy  servant  in  the  bright  place,  in  the 
coolness,  in  the  bosoms  of  Abraham   ..."  ^^" 

Another  Greek  epitaph  showing  perhaps  also  the 
influence  of  Egyptian  phraseology  reads: 

"Eutychousa,  who  entered  into  rest  ...  in  the  place  of  ver- 
dure at  the  water  of  rest,  whence  have  fled  all  pain  and  grief  and 
groaning,  in  the  brightness  of  thy  saints."  ^^^ 

These  illustrations  of  the  influence  which  the  New 
Testament  had  upon  early  Christian  literature  might 
be  indefinitely  increased.  Practically  innumerable  quo- 
tations from  the  New  Testament  have  been  found  in 
Italian,  Syrian,  and  Mesopotamian  inscriptions  from 
the  second  to  the  sixth  century,  as  well  as  from  Egypt. 

'°'^  Coptic  and  Greek  Texts  in  British  Museum^  H.  R.  Hall,  1905,  plates 
III,  VIII. 

'"'Ibid.,  p.  13. 
''^'  Ibid.,  page  138. 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  DOCUMENTS        349 

And  while  most  of  these  are  connected  with  the  ritual 
services  of  the  churches,  or  are  such  texts  as  are  appro- 
priate for  epitaphs,  yet  it  would  be  safe  to  say  that  if 
every  New  Testament  in  the  world  should  be  destroyed 
and  with  them  all  the  writings  of  the  ancient  Fathers, 
such  as  Tertullian  and  Justin  Martyr,  Eusebius  and 
Jerome,  a  very  large  collection  of  the  most  precious 
texts  of  the  New  Testament  expressing  every 
vital  doctrine  and  experience  of  Christianity  might  still 
be  gathered  from  these  newly  found  papyri  and  other 
inscriptions  written  by  poor  and  often  nameless  Chris- 
tians of  the  first  six  centuries. 


PART    TWO 

THE     MONUMENTS,     INSCRIPTIONS,    AND 
OTHER  ANCIENT   REMAINS 

STUDIED  WITH  ESPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THEIR 

BEARING  ON  THE  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  THE 

PRIMITIVE  CHURCH 


[351] 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  GRAVES  AND  BURIED 

CITIES 

I.  New  Light  from  the  Land  of  Palestine 

Palestine  was  the  stage  on  which  the  drama  of  the 
New  Testament  was  enacted.  One  would  naturally  ex- 
pect that  from  its  cemeteries  and  buried  cities  a  flood 
of  light  would  have  been  poured  upon  the  culture  and 
literature  of  the  early  Christian  centuries.  Unfor- 
tunately, however,  very  few  authenticated  monuments 
of  this  period  have  been  found  in  the  Holy  Land.  Not 
even  one  leaf  of  the  Vulgate  has  been  recovered  from 
Bethlehem,  the  home  of  St.  Jerome;  not  one  certified 
ancient  relic  can  be  found  in  Nazareth,  the  home  of 
Jesus — excepting  the  old  well ;  while  scarcely  a  solitary 
monument  from  the  first  century  remains  even  in 
Jerusalem  except,  possibly,  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  and  a 
few  broken  remnants  of  ancient  Roman  buildings, 
roads,  and  walls. ^  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  location 
of  Herod's  temple  can  be  determined  with  certainty, 
and  some  of  the  valleys,  springs,  and  pools,  and  the 
sites  of  ancient  gates  can  be  fixt;  but  doubt  remains 
even  as  to  the  location  of  the  little  upper  room  where 
the  disciples  met,  and  the  palaces  of  Herod  and 
Caiaphas,  and  the  praetorium  and  other  sites  con- 
nected with  the  trial  of  our  Lord.  Even  the  eleven 
cities  which  have  recently  been  excavated  in  the  Holy 
Land,  while  giving  much  new  light  upon  the  era  of  the 
kings  and  the  patriarchs,  have  given  us  pitifully  few 

*  For  the  far  greater  discoveries  in  Palestine  illuminating  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, see  the  author's  Recent  Explorations  in  Palestine  (3d  ed.,  1916), 
Collegiate  Publishing  Co.,  Meadville  Pa. 

[353] 


354     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

remains  from  the  era  of  Jesus  and  the  Christian  com- 
munity previous  to  Constantine.  Some  reasons  for  this 
lamentable  silence  are  easily  discovered.  Palestine  has 
been  the  battleground  of  the  ages;  Jerusalem  has  been 
pillaged  and  destroyed  many  times,  while  the  destruc- 
tion wrought  by  pious  pilgrims  was  almost  an  equal 
catastrophe.  Even  nature  has  conspired  against  the 
archeologist,  for  the  rains  of  Palestine  have  rotted  all 
papyri,  and  the  stones  are  of  a  character  which  will  not 
permanently  hold  inscriptions.  History  has  also  been 
antagonistic  to  scientific  research,  because  this  land  for 
centuries  has  been  at  the  mercy  of  the  Moslem,  and  be- 
cause the  most  important  New  Testament  sites  could 
not  in  any  case  be  thoroughly  excavated,  since  they 
still  remain  inhabited  villages. 

Notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  considerable 
has  been  accomplished.  Individual  surface  exploration, 
which  has  been  going  on  ever  since  the  time  of  St. 
Jerome,  reached  its  climax  in  the  last  generation  in  the 
person  of  Dr.  Edward  Robinson.  In  1856  this  dis- 
tinguished American  scholar  published  his  three  vol- 
umes of  Biblical  Researches,  and  altho  he  had  spent 
barely  five  months  in  his  explorations,  yet,  in  that  short 
time,  he  virtually  "reconstructed  the  map  of  Palestine" 
(Bliss).  He  identified  160  Bible  sites,  and  almost  every 
one  of  his  decisions  has  been  confirmed  by  modern 
scholarship.  He  studied  Jerusalem  with  critical  care, 
being  the  first  to  show  that  the  fragment  of  an  arch 
still  in  existence  had  been  part  of  the  ancient  bridge 
connecting  the  temple  with  Mt.  Zion.  He  was  also  the 
first  to  trace  with  accuracy  the  windings  of  the  tunnel 
leading  from  the  Virgin's  Fount  to  the  Pool  of  Siloam. 
Other  particularly  successful  explorers  in  Palestine,  in 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  355 

the  earlier  period,  were  Lieutenant  Lynch,  who  in  1848 

made  the  first  thorough  examination  of  the  Dead  Sea, 

and  Tobler  (1845-68),  and  Guerin  (1852-75),  who  both 

made  extensive  scientific  explorations.    One  of  the  most 

remarkable  single  discoveries  ever  made  in  Palestine 

directly  touching  New  Testament  times   was   that   of 

Clermont-Ganneau,   who    in     1871     found   the   Jewish 

placard  which  had  been  posted  up  in  Herod's  temple 

forbidding  Gentiles  to  enter  the  sacred  enclosure.     The 

characters  were  monumental  in  size  and  contained  the 

following  inscription  in  Greek  in  seven  lines : 

"No  stranger  is  to  enter  within  the  balustrade  round  the  tem- 
ple and  enclosure.  Whoever  is  caught  will  be  responsible  to  him- 
self for  his  death,  which  will  ensue." 

Dr.  Ganneau  made  many  other  important  discoveries 
adding  to  our  knowledge  of  the  first  century  by  his  re- 
covery of  a  goodly  number  of  ancient  inscriptions,  rock- 
cut  tombs,  and  other  monuments.  One  of  his  most 
famous  "finds"  was  the  "stone  of  Bethphage"  (cf.  Luke 
19:  29)  on  which  was  frescoed  a  precious  ancient  pic- 
ture of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus.  Colonel  Conder 
also  did  specially  good  work  in  a  private  capacity,  and 
as  the  head  of  the  archeological  party  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund  reported, 
in  1880,  ten  thousand  place-names  and  172  new  Bible 
sites  successfully  identified. 

The  work  of  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  begun 
in  1865,  marked  a  new  era  in  the  work  of  discovery. 
It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  more  advance  was 
made  during  the  first  fifteen  years  of  its  existence  than 
in  all  the  fifteen  centuries  before.  Perhaps  the  greatest 
work,  however,  done  by  this  society  was  that  connected 
with  the  topographical   survey  of  Western   Palestine 


356    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

(1871-77)  and  of  Eastern  Palestine  (1881-82),  resulting 
in  an  authoritative  map  on  the  scale  of  an  inch  to  a  mile, 
showing  accurately  all  previous  identifications  of  ancient 
places.  These  maps  still  hold  their  places  among  the  best 
published,  and  when  they  first  appeared,  together  with 
eight  massive  volumes  giving  full  results  of  the  topo- 
graphical and  archeological  survey  of  Palestine,  scholars 
declared  with  some  appearance  of  reason  that  this  work 
represented  "the  most  important  contribution  to  illus- 
trate the  Bible  since  its  translation  into  the  vulgar 
tongue."  It  would  be  impossible  even  to  hint  at  the  con- 
tents of  these  enormous  volumes,  with  their  hundreds  of 
maps  and  plans  of  churches,  mosques,  temples,  and  tombs 
from  every  part  of  Palestine,  and  the  monographs,  rich 
with  learning,  which  discuss  the  botany,  zoology, 
geology,  etc.,  of  the  Holy  Land.  In  19 13- 14  a  survey  of 
South  Palestine  was  made  by  Capt.  S.  F.  Newcombe  and 
Lieut.  F.  C.  S.  Greig,  including  the  Negeb — from 
Beersheba  to  the  Egyptian  frontier,  from  Rafah  on  the 
Mediterranean  to  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Akaba — but 
at  the  present  writing  (191 7)  the  map  based  on  this 
survey,  tho  completed,  has  not  yet  been  issued. 

Jerusalem  was  also  explored  by  this  society  with 
great  thoroughness  so  far  as  this  could  be  done  under  a 
Moslem  government,  and  with  the  embarrassment  to 
excavation  caused  by  the  necessary  protection  of 
modern  buildings  and  cemeteries.  But  tho  the  remains 
of  seven  synagogs  and  many  ancient  churches  were 
carefully  examined — among  which  was  the  ruined 
church  of  Justinian  on  Mt.  Gerizim, — and  tho  a  few 
relics  were  recovered  from  the  time  of  Queen  Helena 
and  Hadrian,  and  while  much  was  done  to  settle  dis- 
puted questions  concerning  the  ancient  walls  and  pools, 


O.   Marucchi 


Dr.   Rodolfo  Lanciani 


Sir   William   M.   Ramsay 


Dr.  Agnes  Smith  Leivis 

©  Ellioti    a.   Fry 


Dr.   Margaret  Dunlop  Gibson 
Giovanni  Battista  De  Rossi  ©  Elliott  <&  fry 


Dr.  J.   Rendel   Harris 


Melchior  De  Vogue 


Prof.   Howard  Crosby   Butler 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  357 

it  must  be  acknowledged  that  few  discoveries  were 
made  having  any  close  connection  with  the  New  Testa- 
ment text  or  New  Testament  times. 

It  would  be  ungrateful,  however,  not  to  mention  the 
work  of  Sir  Charles  Wilson,  Sir  Charles  Warren,  and 
others  who  uncovered  the  temple  area  of  its  countless 
tons  of  debris,  traced  its  approximate  outline,  examined 
underground  rock  chambers,  opened  ancient  streets, 
and  discovered  many  thousand  specimens  of  pottery, 
glass,  tools,  etc.,  dating  from  the  Jewish  to  the  Byzan- 
tine period.  Among  other  discoveries  the  thirty-four 
rock-cut  cisterns  found  on  the  ancient  temple  site  are 
impressive.  The  largest  of  these  has  a  depth  of  forty- 
three  feet  and  a  capacity  of  more  than  2,000,000  gallons, 
while  another  had  a  depth  of  sixty-one  feet  and  a  capacity 
of  700,000  gallons.  One  can  not  forget  Maudslay 
(1875),  who  made  a  masterly  examination  of  the  great 
scarp;  and  Guthe  (1881),  who  made  fine  additional  dis- 
coveries at  Ophel;  and  the  later  work  of  Warren  and 
Conder,  who  published  an  elaborate  plan  of  the  whole 
city,  twenty-five  inches  to  the  mile — a  plan  which  remains 
the  basis  of  all  later  maps.  Neither  can  one  forget  the 
work  done  in  Jerusalem,  1884-97,  by  Dr.  F.  J.  Bliss; 
and  that  done  since  then  by  the  Assumptionist  Fathers 
of  Mt.  Zion  and  others  who  have  excavated  beneath 
and  around  their  churches,  and  have  brought  to  light 
many  ancient  relics  and  some  remarkable  construction, 
beside  tracing  the  history  of  the  sacred  sites  quite 
elaborately.^  One  of  the  most  inspiring  of  these 
later  discoveries  was  that  of  Dr.  Bliss  in  recover- 
ing   the    ancient   church    which   had    been    built    over 

*  See,  e.g.,  P.  Urbain  Coppin,  Le  Palais  de  Caiphe,  1904,  P.  Barnabe, 
Le  Pretoire  de  Pilate,  1902. 


358     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  Pool  of  Siloam  (John  9:7);  and  ahiiost  equally 
stimulating  was  the  discovery  by  the  White  Fathers  of 
what  is  probably  the  ancient  Pool  of  Bethesda  with  the 
ancient  church  above  (fifth  century),  built  in  memory  of 
the  troubling  of  the  waters  (John  5:4).  The  Assump- 
tionist  Fathers  found,  in  19 12,  on  Mt.  Zion  what  seems  to 
be  the  remains  of  an  ancient  prison  and  the  foundations 
of  an  ancient  church ;  also,  at  a  time  somewhat  earlier,  a 
set  of  Hebrew  measures,  enabling  us  for  the  first  time  to 
be  sure  that  we  possess  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
ancient  measures  of  capacity  mentioned  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  in  later  Jewish  writings. 

The  Algerian  Fathers,  in  1912,  also  made  a 
peculiarly  valuable  discovery  at  Jerusalem  when  they 
found  the  standard  talent,  which  was  kept  in  the 
sanctuary.^  This  was  a  spherical  stone  with  flattened 
bottom  having  a  rude  inscription  at  each  end  and 
weighing  about  nineteen  pounds. 

But  the  new  era  in  Palestine  exploration  opened 
in  1890  when  Dr.  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie  began  to  ex- 
cavate the  ancient  Biblical  city  of  Lachish  at  Tel  el 
^Hesy,  in  southern  Palestine.  There  had  been  much 
surface  exploration  and  some  miscellaneous  digging  at 
various  sites  previous  to  this,  but  Dr.  Petrie  was  the 
first  to  undertake  the  scientific  excavation  of  an  entire 
town.  At  the  end  of  six  weeks'  work  he  could  date 
approximately  some  seven  successive  occupations  of  this 
site  covering  a  period  of  a  thousand  years,  and  because 
of  his  previous  excavations  in  Egypt  this  explorer  was 
able  to  produce  a  chronological  scale  by  which  the  age 
of  each  city  could  be  definitely  calculated  from  the 
styles  and  decoration  of  the  pottery  fragments.  While 
no  relics  of  the  Christian  era  were  found  in  this  par- 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  359 

ticular  city,  it  was  a  necessary  preparation  for  the  ex- 
cavation of  about  a  dozen  other  ancient  sites  in  some 
of  which  remains  of  the  Christian  era  were  found. 

During-  1890- 1900  Dr.  Frederick  Jones  BHss — who 
had  followed  Dr.  Petrie  at  Lachish — and  Dr.  R.  A. 
Stewart'  Macalister  dug  up  four  towns  on  the  border- 
land between  Philistia  and  Judea,  the  most  important 
of  these  being  situated  at  Tell  Sandahannah.  This 
town  covered  about  six  acres,  and  the  work  done  was 
''unique  in  the  history  of  Palestinian  excavations" 
(Bliss),  because  at  this  place  was  "recovered  almost  an 
entire  town,  probably  the  ancient  Mareshah  (Joshua 
15:44),  its  inner  and  outer  walls,  its  gates,  streets, 
lanes,  open  places,  houses,  reservoirs,  etc."  (Bliss).  It 
was  a  Seleucidan  town  (third  to  second  century  B.C.), 
built  with  thin  brick-like  blocks  of  soft  limestone.  The 
town  was  roughly  divided  into  blocks  of  streets,  some 
of  the  streets  being  paved.  The  houses  were  lighted 
from  the  street  and  from  an  open  court.  Very  few 
rooms  were  perfectly  rectangular,  while  some  were  of 
awkward  shape.  Many  closets  were  found,  and  pit- 
ovens  and  vaulted  cisterns  reached  by  staircases,  as 
also  portions  of  the  drainage  system.  The  cisterns  had 
plastered  floors  and  sometimes  two  heavy  coats  of 
plaster  on  the  walls.  The  houses  occasionally  had 
vaulted  roofs,  but  usually  the  ordinary  roof  of  to-day 
made  of  board  and  rushes  covered  with  clay.  The 
chief  importance  of  this  discovery  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  shows  us  a  Palestine  town  just  previous  to  the 
Christian  era.  The  towns  of  Palestine  two  centuries 
later  could  not  have  been  very  different.^* 

*■  The  work  of  Petrie,  Bliss,  and  Macalister  was  carried  on  under  the 
auspices  of  the  pioneer  society,  The  Palestine  Exploration  Fund. 


36o    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  fact  that  the  Holy  Land  was  freely  open  to 
foreign  immigration  is  shown  from  the  Sidonian  tombs 
found  near  Tell  Sandahannah.  Drs.  J.  P.  PY^ters  and  H. 
Thiersch  discovered  these  strange  examples  of  sepulchral 
art  in  1902.  The  walls  of  the  tombs  were  brilliantly 
painted,  showing  a  bull,  panther,  serpent,  ibex,  croco- 
dile w^ith  ibis  on  its  back,  hunter  on  horseback,  etc., 
with  dated  inscriptions,  the  earliest  being  196  B.C. 
Nothing  shows  better  the  interrelations  of  that  age 
than  this  Phoenician  colony  living  in  Palestine,  not  only 
writing  in  the  Greek  language  but  also  using  Egyptian 
and  Libyan  characters  in  their  art.  The  dress  of  this 
period  is  surprizingly  modern,  as  shown  by  some  of  the 
figures.  That  they  also  believed  in  the  future  life  is 
shown  by  their  tomb  decorations.  In  a  similar  tomb 
which  the  writer  discovered  in  191 3  the  most  prominent 
features  of  the  decoration  were  a  garland  of  flowers 
surrounded  by  a  cross  and  a  cock.  The  cross  was 
probably  merely  an  ornament,  but  the  cock  as  "herald 
of  the  dawn"  almost  certainly  symbolized  the  hope  of 
a  future  life.  Another  painted  tomb  of  the  same  era 
has  more  recently  been  discovered,  and  thoroughly 
described  by  Warren  J.  Moulton,  but  it  adds  little  more 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  period.^" 

The  most  striking  find  at  Tell  Sandahannah  con- 
sisted of  sixteen  little  human  figures  dating  from  the 
early  Christian  era.  These  little  "revenge  dolls"  are 
bound  in  fetters  of  lead,  iron,  etc.,  through  which  the 
owners  hoped  to  work  magic  on  their  enemies.  To- 
gether with  these,  forty-nine  fragments  of  magical 
tablets  were  found  inscribed  in  Greek  on  white  lime- 
stone with  exorcisms,   incantations,   and  imprecations. 

'^Journal  of  Roman  Studies,  1915    (Jan. -March). 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  361 

Nor  was  belief  in  magic  confined  to  the  Jews  and 
heathen.  In  a  Christian  exorcism  recently  published 
the  ancient  writer  attempts  to  put  magical  bonds  upon  an 
enemy  who  he  supposed  was  working  evil  through  the 
"spirit  of  evil  whom  the  angel  Gabriel  released  from  fiery 
chains."  The  "name"  of  Jesus  and  certain  "scripture" 
narrating  the  power  of  our  Lord  in  Galilee  is  "pro- 
claimed" to  this  evil  spirit,  and  he  is  bidden  to  flee  to 
the  woods  on  the  mountain  top  and  leave  the  tormented 
Christian  alone.^ 

It  seems  a  great  pity  that  in  the  remarkable  exca- 
vations of  Dr.  Ernest  Sellin  at  Jericho  (1907-9)  no 
remains  from  the  early  Christian  era  were  discovered 
excepting  two  crosses  and  two  or  three  other  Christian 
emblems.  They  did,  however,  find  a  large  Jewish  town 
(600-400  B.C.),  and  proved  that  the  Jericho  of  Jesus' 
day  was  a  double  city  spreading  itself  out  on  both  sides 
of  the  wady.  They  found  a  rich  horde  of  Jewish  house- 
hold utensils,  and  proved  that  Greek  merchants  and 
terra-cotta  manufacturers  found  in  Jericho  a  very  good 
sale  for  their  wares  about  the  days  of  Ezra.  Toys  in 
terra-cotta  were  common,  and  fragments  of  a  beautiful 
animal  frieze  were  found,  as  well  as  twelve  Rhodian  jar 
handles  stamped  in  Aramaic  with  the  words  "To 
Jehovah."  All  of  this  shows  that  Jericho,  the  city  of 
priests,  was  a  cultured  and  religious  town  several  cen- 
turies before  the  birth  of  Christ. 

While  Dr.  George  A.  Reisner,  with  a  staff  of 
specialists,  made  many  remarkable  discoveries  at 
Samaria,  1908-9,  almost  all  of  these  refer  to  a  period 
long  before  the  Christian  era.  They  did,  however,  trace 
the  road  of  columns  leading  to  the  forum  and  the  great 

'Bulletin  d'anc.  litt.  chret.,  1911,  p.  81,  No.l. 


362     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

outer  wall  "twenty  stadia  in  circuit"  which  Josephus 
mentions,  and  uncovered  the  ornamental  gate  and 
several  important  buildings.  Many  inscriptions  and 
much  pottery  of  the  Roman  period  were  excavated,  and 
the  old  Roman  chariot  road  leading  into  the  forum, 
which  Jesus  and  his  disciples  must  have  known  well, 
was  positively  identified.  Adjoining  the  forum  and 
connected  with  it  by  a  wide  doorway  was  a  basilica  con- 
sisting of  a  large,  open,  stone-paved  court  surrounded 
by  a  colonnade  with  mosaic  floor.  An  inscription  in 
Greek  on  an  architrave  in  the  courtyard  dates  this 
A.D.  12-15.  The  plan  of  this  Herodian  temple,  which 
was  built  during  the  boyhood  of  our  Lord,  consisted  of 
a  stairway,  a  portico,  a  vestibule,  and  a  cella  with  a 
corridor  on  each  side.  The  staircase  was  eighty  feet 
wide,  composed  of  seventeen  steps  beautifully  con- 
structed, the  steps  being  quite  modern  in  style,  each 
tread  overlapping  the  next  lower  by  several  inches. 
The  roof  was  arched  and  the  walls  very  massive  and 
covered  with  a  heavy  coat  of  plaster  still  retaining 
traces  of  color.  A  few  Greek  graffiti  were  found  near 
here,  150  stamped  jar  handles,  and  many  fragments  of 
Latin  inscriptions.  A  complete  inscription  on  a  large 
stele  proved  to  be  a  dedication  from  some  Pannonian 
soldier  (probably  second  century)  to  "Jupiter  Optimus 
Maximus."  Near  this  was  found  a  torso  of  heroic  size 
carved  in  white  marble  with  such  superior  skill  as  to 
bring  to  mind  the  Augustus  of  the  Vatican.  Close  to 
this  statue  was  a  Roman  altar  (presumably  Herodian) 
about  13x7  feet,  rising  in  six  courses  of  stone  to  a 
height  of  six  feet. 

Beneath  the  Roman  city  was  a  Seleucid  town  (about 
300-100  B.C.)  with  its  fortifications,  gateway,  streets, 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  363 

one  great  public  building  and  complex  of  private 
houses,  in  connection  with  which  was  a  large  bath- 
house with  mosaic  floor,  containing  hot  and  cold  baths, 
water-closets,  etc.,  which  was  heated  by  a  furnace.  In 
this  connection  we  ought  perhaps  also  to  mention  M. 
Caster's  discovery  at  Samaria  of  fifteen  ancient 
phylacteries,  the  text  of  which  dates  back  to  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  being  therefore  the  kind 
of  phylacteries  referred  to  in  Matt.  23:  5.  They  con- 
sist of  quotations  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  also 
contain  a  curious  list  of  the  names  of  male  and  female 
sorcerers.* 

The  greatest  single  excavation  ever  made  in  Pales- 
tine was  that  undertaken  under  the  auspices  of  the  Pales- 
tine Exploration  Fund  by  Dr.  Macalister  at  Gezer, 
some  twenty  miles  northwest  of  Jerusalem,  in  1902-5; 
1907-9.  No  explorations  have  been  continued  so  long 
on  one  spot,  or  have  produced  more  unique  discoveries, 
or  thrown  more  light  upon  the  development  of  Pales- 
tinian culture  and  religion;  and  none  have  been  re- 
ported as  fully.  Unfortunately,  however,  even  here 
the  early  Christian  era  is  almost  a  blank.  The  popula- 
tion had  either  disappeared  in  the  early  Christian 
period,  or  the  monuments  had  been  broken  into  dust  in 
some  terrible  catastrophe.  It  is  something,  however, 
to  find  here  coming  from  the  time  of  Ezra  or  a  little 
earlier  another  complete  plan  of  an  ancient  Palestine 
town.  Gezer  at  this  era  was  in  appearance  like  a 
modern  Arab  village,  a  huge  mass  of  crooked,  narrow, 
filthy  streets,  shut  inside  a  thick  wall  with  no  trace  of 
sanitary  conveniences,  with  huge  cisterns  in  which 
dead  men  could  lie  undetected  for  centuries,  and  with 

*  Palestine  Expl.  Fund,  Quarterly  Report,  March,  1916,  etc. 


364     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

110  sewers.  Even  in  the  Maccabean  time  the  only 
sewer  ran,  not  into  a  cesspool,  but  into  the  ground 
close  to  the  governor's  palace.  No  wonder  that  the 
death  rate  was  exceedingly  high,  few  old  men  being 
found  in  the  cemeteries,  while  curvature  of  the  spine, 
syphilis,  brain  disease,  and  especially  broken  and  unset 
bones  were  common. 

The  houses  were  generally  of  one  story,  and  when 
two-storied  the  stairs  led  up  from  the  outside  and  the 
lower  floor  was  mostly  given  up  to  the  cattle.  When 
a  chamber  was  too  large  to  be  spanned  by  a  single 
length  of  roofing  timber,  middle  posts  were  used. 
Tweezers,  pins,  and  needles,  bottles  containing  eye- 
paint,  mirrors,  combs,  perfume  boxes,  scrapers  for 
baths,  and  jewelry  of  various  kinds  were  common, 
while  a  pulley  of  bronze  was  also  found  and  an  iron 
hoe  exactly  like  the  modern  one.  During  the  Macca- 
bean epoch  the  people  of  Gezer  built  reservoirs  (one 
having  a  capacity  of  4,000,000  gallons),  used  well- 
paved  rooms,  favored  complex  house  plans  with  pillars, 
the  courtyard  becoming  less  important  as  compared 
with  the  rooms,  tho  domestic  fowls  were  now  for  the 
first  time  introduced.  The  architectural  decorations 
have  all  been  annihilated,  excepting  a  few  molded 
stones,  and  an  Ionic  volute  from  a  palace  supposed  to 
be  that  of  Simon  Maccabeus  because  of  the  reference 
in  Josephus  and  because  of  a  scribbled  imprecation 
found  in  the  courtyard:  ''May  fire  overtake  ( !) 
Simon's  palace."  This  is  the  only  inscription  from  this 
period  excepting  one  grotesque  animal  figure  on  which 
is  scrawled  a  name  looking  something  like  "Antio- 
chus." ' 

^  The  writer  has  quoted  freely  in  the  above  summary  of  results,  from 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  365 

Since  the  above  excavations  were  finished,  a 
few  other  explorations  of  minor  importance  have  been 
made  which  ought  to  be  mentioned.  These  have  con- 
sisted mainly  of  topographical,  geographical,  and 
meteorological  notes;  examination  of  ancient  walls, 
towers,  caves,  roads,  and  springs;  a  critical  study  of 
the  natural  products  and  of  the  exports  and  imports 
of  Palestine;  modern  manners  and  customs,  religious 
ideas,  folk-lore,  etc.  Yet  many  small  objects  have  been 
brought  to  light,  such  as  seals,  glass  mosaics,  wall 
frescoes,  ossuaries,  osteophagi;  Greek,  Latin,  and  Kufic 
inscriptions;  and  other  objects  too  numerous  to  men- 
tion. In  the  midst  of  this  wealth  of  small  discoveries 
it  seems  almost  impossible  to  mention  any  without  un- 
fair discrimination;  yet  we  can  not  wholly  omit  from 
our  review  a  few  of  the  most  recent  "finds."  No  Bible 
student  could  fail  to  be  interested  in  the  two  fine  rock- 
cut  tombs  containing  Jewish  sarcophagi  found  recently 
in  a  suburb  of  Jerusalem,  a  rolling  stone  being  used  for 
one  of  the  doors  of  the  tomb.  As  these  are  almost  the 
only  Jewish  sarcophagi  ever  found  in  Jerusalem,  it  is 
of  interest  to  note  how  carefully  the  tombs  were  made, 
and  that  the  walls  were  prepared  for  paintings,  just  as 
in  the  best  heathen  tombs  of  this  period.  In  connection 
with  this  might  be  mentioned  the  discovery  of  a  richly 
carved  marble  sarcophagus  (second  century  B.C.),  at 
Turmus  Aya  near  Shiloh.®     It  was  constructed  out  of 

his  article,  "Palestine  (Recent  Explorations),"  in  the  International  Bible 
Encyclopedia  (IV.,  2222-2235),  published  by  the  Howard-Severance  Co., 
Chicago,  1915.  Thanks  for  this  priuilege  are  hereby  returned  to  the  pub- 
lishers, and  the  reader  is  referred  to  that  work  for  a  list  of  authoritative 
publications  on  this  subject.  An  additional  official  publication  of  value 
is,  Fifty  Years'  Work  in  the  Holy  Land,  published  by  the  Palestine  Explora- 
tion Fund,  London,  1915. 

°  Described  by  Mr.  Jacob  E.  Spafford,  June,  1913,  in  the  Journal  of  the 
British  Archceological  Association. 


366    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

fine  white  marble,  the  heavy  lid  being  gable-shaped  like 
most  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  sarcophagi,  and  its  sides 
ornamented  with  elaborate  carvings,  little  inferior  to 
the  best  work  previously  unearthed  in  Palestine. 
Among  these  are  fruits  and  flowers  in  abundance  and 
several  remarkable  symbolical  figures.  The  figures 
represent  Bacchus,  a  horse  and  rider,  a  man  in  the 
clutch  of  a  dragon,  and  the  four  seasons  with  sym- 
bolical figures  of  the  Earth  and  Ocean.  The  figure 
representing  Winter  is  covered  with  an  ample  mantle, 
his  right  hand  is  broken,  and  birds  are  held  in  his  left 
hand.  By  his  side  is  Spring,  whose  left  arm  rests  on 
a  gnarled  branch,  the  right  hand  holding  a  basket  of 
flowers.  Next  to  this  is  the  figure  representing  Sum- 
mer, pictured  as  a  winged  cupid,  whose  hair  is  adorned 
with  ears  of  wheat  and  who  carries  a  basket  over- 
flowing with  the  same  grain.  The  Earth  is  seen  at 
the  feet  of  Winter,  wearing  a  garland  of  ripe  grain 
upon  her  brow. 

In  April  and  May,  1905,  the  German  Oriental 
Society  excavated  a  Hebrew  synagog  of  the  Roman 
period  at  Tell-Hum.  It  was  78  feet  long  by  59  feet 
wide,  was  built  of  beautiful  white  limestone  almost 
equal  to  marble,  and  was  in  every  way  more  mag- 
nificent than  any  ever  before  found  in  Palestine,  that 
in  Chorazin  being  the  next  finest.  Its  roof  was  gable- 
shaped,  and  it  was  surprizingly  ornamented  with  fine 
carvings  representing  animals,  birds,  fruits,  etc;  tho 
in  some  cases  these  ornamentations  had  been  inten- 
tionally mutilated.  In  January,  1907,  Macalister  and 
Masterman  reported  that  they  had  made  sufficient  ex- 
cavations at  Khan  Minyeh  to  prove  that  it  was  not  the 
ancient  Capernaum,  as  it  contained  no  pottery  older 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  367 

than  the  Arab  time.  This  report  being  accepted,  Tell- 
Hum  is  left  without  a  rival  in  its  claim  to  be  Caper- 
naum and  makes  it  probable  that  the  synagog  ex- 
cavated there  is  the  very  one  referred  to  in  Luke  12:  5.' 

Among  the  most  recent  finds  we  perhaps  ought  to 
mention  also  the  heathen  temple  from  the  time  of 
Diocletian  recently  found  a  little  south  of  the  "street 
called  Straight"  in  Damascus;  the  inscription  (a.d.  318) 
found  east  of  the  Jordan  telling  of  the  existence  of 
a  Marcionite  synagog  there;  the  small,  vaulted  chapel 
discovered  in  1905  under  the  traditional  site  of  the 
house  of  Ananias;  and  the  Christian  mosaic  found  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives  in  1907,  containing  the  monogram 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  letters  alpha  and  omega.  The 
finest  mosaic,  however,  ever  found  in  Palestine  was 
that  discovered  in  1896  at  Madeba  by  Father  Cleopas, 
librarian  of  the  Greek  patriarch. 

This  proved  to  be  a  part  of  the  pavement  of  a  sixth 
century  church  (a.d.  527-565)  and  is  a  "veritable  map 
of  Palestine,"  showing  its  chief  cities,  the  boundaries 
of  the  tribes,  and  especially  the  city  of  Jerusalem  with 
its  walls,  gates,  chief  buildings,  including  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  and  its  chief  streets ;  notably  one 
long,  straight  street  intersecting  the  city  and  lined  with 
colonnades.  As  Madeba  lies  near  the  foot  of  Mt.  Nebo, 
it  has  been  thought  that  the  artist  may  have  intended 
to  represent  ideally  a  modern  sixth  century  vision  of 
Moses.  This  mosaic  was  very  large  and  was  beautifully 
laid  out  in  colors.  It  has  just  been  very  pleasingly 
suggested  that  this  "oldest  land-map  known"  was  prob- 
ably a  votive  offering  to  the  church  by  some  ancient 
pilgrim.    In  1899  Mr.  S.  W.  Woodward  of  Washington, 

'Yet  see  Pal.  Expl.  Fund,  1916,  p.  194. 


368    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

D.  C,  obtained  in  Jerusalem  the  remarkable  draw- 
ing of  this  mosaic,  which  w^e  reproduce  through  the 
kindness  of  Dr.  I.  M.  Casanowicz  and  the  editor  of  Art 
and  Archceology.  It  was  orientated  toward  the  sunrise 
and  contains  about  one  hundred  forty  place  names,  some 
eighty  of  which  have  reference  to  the  Bible  narratives.' 

Another  mosaic  found  recently  at  'Ain  'Arrub,  be- 
tween Bethlehem  and  Hebron,  contained  an  inscription 
in  Greek  telling  of  St.  Plesippos,  who,  "like  St.  John," 
had  lived  to  be  a  hundred  years  old.  Still  another  de- 
scribed recently  by  Mr.  Willard  H.  Robinson,  Jr.,* 
discovered  at  Ard  el-Muheit  near  Mt.  Nebo,  early  in 
1914,  deserves  to  be  more  fully  described,  as  it  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  ever  found  in  Palestine.  It  is  part 
of  the  floor  of  an  ancient  church,  and  is  36  feet  long 
by  27  feet  broad,  being  richly  adorned  in  colors  with 
figures  of  men,  and  animals  of  various  kinds;  perhaps 
the  most  important  is  the  representation  of  a  man 
and  woman  with  a  serpent  coiled  about  a  pole  between 
them.  The  whole  is  in  an  excellent  state  of  preserva- 
tion. Along  the  borders  there  are  three  Greek  in- 
scriptions dating  probably  from  the  fourth  century, 
the  largest  and  most  valuable  of  which  consists  of  six 
lines  telling  of  the  prayers  of  certain  devotees  to  the 
god  of  **holy  Lot"  and  ''holy  Procopias."  The  designa- 
tion of  Lot  as  a  patron  saint  seems  strange;  but  an 
ancient  Jerusalem  ritual  mentions  that  Abraham  and 
Lot  were  both  reverenced  in  Galilee  in  the  seventh 
Christian  century.^** 

Many   inscriptions    have    recently   been   found   in 

^  Art  and  Archceology,  March,  1916. 
"American  Journal  of  Archceology,  1914,  pp.  492-498. 
"  See  article  of  Prof.  George  L.  Robinson,  Harvard  Theological  Review, 
October,  1915,  pp.  525-552. 


a      ^ 

??  o 


CURISTIAX    VILLA  AT    EL-BARAil,   SYRIA 
From  De  Vogii('.   "L'Arrhitecture  dans  le  Syrie  Centrale,"   (A'ol.   I) 


CHRISTL\N  HOUSES  AT   DJEBEL   RIHA  IN   CENTRAL   SYRIA   (6th   Century) 
From  De  VogiU'.   ■•L'Aichitecture  dans  le  Syrie  Centrale,"   (Vol    Ii 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  369 

Eastern  and  Western  Palestine.  One  of  these,  coming 
from  Gerasa,  has  to  do  with  Hadrian's  campaign 
against  the  Jews,  a.d,  132-133,  and  proves  that  eight 
squadrons  of  the  Royal  Body  Guard  were  at  Gerasa  at 
that  time  with  the  Emperor.  Dr.  A.  Cowley,  1914- 
191 5,  found  a  particularly  interesting  inscription  at 
Khalasa,  about  forty-five  miles  southeast  of  Gaza, 
dating  from  about  96  B.C. : 

"This  is  the  place  which  Nuthairu  made  for  the  life  of  Aretas, 
king  of  the  Nabateans." 

A  number  of  other  inscriptions  mention  Aretas,  "who 
loves  his  people."  One  of  these  dates  from  a.d.  31,  and 
another  from  a.d.  37.  It  was  at  some  time  between  these 
dates  that  Paul  escaped  from  the  governor  of  Aretas  in 
Damascus  (2  Cor.  11:32).^"^ 

Mr.  M.  N.  Todd  reports  a  building  inscription  at 
Beersheba,  dating  a.d.  241-242,  possibly  Christian,  and 
several  other  funeral  inscriptions  elsewhere,  certainly 
Christian,  dating  from  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries. 
One  of  these  gives  not  only  the  month  and  year,  but 
the  day  and  hour  of  the  person's  death. 

The  present  writer,   in    191 3,   saw   a  large  grave 

tablet  at  Beersheba  which  he  copied,   containing  the 

following   previously   unpublished   epitaph    (a.d.    589- 

604): 

"Here  was  deposited  Emma  Nonna,  the  deaconess,  in  the 
month  of  Daesius   .    .    .   the  twenty-third  of  the  first  indiction." 

This  reminds  one  of  the  grave  inscription  reported 
in  the  Revue  Bibliqiie  (N.S.,  Tome  II,  p.  248) : 

"Here  is  deposited  the  happy  Peter,  the  first  day  of  the  month 
Artemesios  in  the  third  indiction." 

'"^  For  a  translation  of  these  texts  see  Geo.  A.  Barton,  Archeology  and 
the  Bible,  p.  442. 


370     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

There  are  also  Christian  epitaphs  for  "the  late 
Abraham,  a  physician,  who  died  May  8  in  the  twelfth 
indiction  in  the  year  365,"  reported  from  Beersheba,  for 
Father  Symmachis,  and  for  *'the  happy  Victorine,"  etc. 
But  the  most  important  is  the  following: 

"I  am  George,  the  son  of  Theodotus.  Fate  extinguished  me 
in  my  youth  and  I  have  left  to  mourn  me  my  father  and  my  uncle, 
who  brought  me  up  and  gave  me  an  excellent  education  .  .  . 
indiction.    12  .    .    .   May  the  Christ  give  thee  rest,  my  orphan."" 

Nathaniel  Schmidt  has  also  recently  reported 
twenty-one  texts  from  Ruhebek  (cf.  Gen.  26:22),  all 
of  a  similar  nature  to  the  more  simple  epitaphs  given 
above,  and  three  more  from  Beersheba,  one  of  which 
is  an  honorific  inscription  dedicated  to  an  artist  who 
had  evidently  just  designed  and  erected  some  mag- 
nificent monument  there  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century : 

"Eyes,  what  marvel  is  this !  Such  an  ornament,  how  was  it 
made  here?  What  mortal  devised  this  beautiful  thing  the  world 
never  saw  before?  Antipater  made  it,  and  shewed  how  Uranus 
(gracious  be  he!)  holds  in  his  hands  the  reins  of  armies  dear  to 
Mars."  ^2 

In  1914  Dr.  G.  Dalman  was  able  to  report  twenty 
Greek  inscriptions  and  a  number  of  Hebrew  and 
Aramaic  epitaphs  from  the  fourth  to  the  sixth  cen- 
turies, coming  from  Jerusalem,  Nazareth,  Gadara,  and 
other  towns.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  these  is 
that  of  Oneos,  "the  high  priest,"  a.d.  539,  closing  with 
the  ordinary  heathen  formula,  "Be  of  good  courage, 
no  one  is  immortal."     In  connection  with  the  latter  in- 

"  Op.  cxt,  pp.  249,  250. 

"  American  Journal  of  ArchcBology,  14 :  67. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  371 

scription  we  would  like  to  mention  a  small  marble  slab 
which  we  obtained  at  Caesarea  in  191 3,  containing  the 
following  Christian  epitaph: 

"In  the  month  Loos,  the  priestess  passed  away  ...  on  the 
eighth  day  of  the  year   ...  of  Christ." 

The  fact  that  this  is  certainly  a  Christian  inscrip- 
tion makes  us  wonder  whether  Oneos  was  a  Christian 
priest,  and  whether  "the  priestess"  mentioned  above 
was  a  converted  heathen  priestess  or  whether  this  was 
a  Christian  title.  It  is  interesting  tho  puzzling  to  find 
on  the  tombstone  of  this  priestess  two  engraved  figures 
which  seem  to  be  those  of  a  scorpion  or  spider  and  a 
hare.  If  properly  interpreted  the  former  may  be  the 
heathen  symbol  representing  pain  and  destruction,  as 
the  hare  was  certainly  the  Christian  symbol  represent- 
ing escape  from  danger.^^ 

That  the  spider  was  sometimes  used  by  Christians 
in  exorcisms  is  shown  by  a  very  curious  Latin  text, 
recently  published,  in  which  the  exorcist  denounces  his 
enemy  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  declaring 
that  he  shall  not  be  able  to  "cross  the  river"  because 
of  the  "fiery  spider."  " 

"  The  carving  is  so  imperfect,  however,  that  it  may  be  possible  that  a 
butterfly  was  intended  instead  of  the  spider.  For  the  other  inscriptions 
quoted,  and  many  more,  see  Zeitschrift  des  deutschen  Paldstina-V ereins, 
1914,  pp.  135-145.  Some  Latin  inscriptions  were  also  recently  found  in  the 
Lebanons  by  Prof.  James  A.  Montgomery  {Am.  Journal  of  ArchcEology, 
Jan.  1916).  The  writer  is  greatly  indebted  to  Dr.  E.  J.  Goodspeed 
of  the  University  of  Chicago  for  help  in  deciphering  several  of  the  above 
previously  unpublished  inscriptions. 

'*Text  published  by  Giulio  Bertoni  in  Bulletin  d'anc.  Ittf.  chret.,  1911, 
p.  81,  No.  II.  Ancient  inscriptions  are  always  difficult  to  read  because  of 
their  mutilation,  bad  orthography,  and  bad  grammar;  but  magical  texts 
are  also  made  intentionally  obscure.  I  am  indebted  to  my  friend  and  col- 
league. Prof.  Clarence  F.  Ross,  A.  M.,  for  help  in  unraveling  some  of 
the  puzzles  in  language  connected  with  this  and  several  other  Latin  texts. 
For  the  detailed  interpretation,  however,  I  must  alone  be  held  responsible. 


372     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

In  addition  to  inscriptions,  many  fine  statues  and 
marble  bas-reliefs,  with  a  few  personal  ornaments,  have 
been  recently  found  at  Askalon,  Caesarea,  and  else- 
where. One  of  the  most  interesting  pieces  of  jewelry 
was  an  onyx  seal  ring  of  Abbahu,  containing  a  Hebrew 
inscription  dating  from  a.d.  279-80,  found  at  Caesarea 
and  reported  by  Dr.  P.  Schroeder.^^ 

While  the  record  of  these  new  discoveries  in  Pales- 
tine has,  in  a  way,  been  disappointing,  yet  they  have 
been  important  in  bringing  clearly  to  view  the  extreme 
poverty  of  the  poor  and  the  wealth  of  the  rich  in  the 
cities  with  which  our  Lord  was  best  acquainted.  It  is 
now  seen  that  Jesus  lived  in  a  luxurious  age,  coming 
into  close  touch  daily  with  the  currents  of  an  important 
world  traffic.  Jesus  and  his  disciples  were  poor,  but 
their  neighbors  were  rich.  The  shore  of  the  Sea  of 
Galilee  was  a  favorite  place  for  the  summer  residences 
of  Roman  nobles.  When  one  thinks  of  the  splendid 
Greek  city  of  Tiberias,  the  most  prominent  object  on 
the  Sea  of  Galilee,  built  during  the  early  manhood  of 
Jesus,  and  made  capital  of  Galilee  by  Herod,  and  when 
one  examines  the  magnificent  ruins  of  Samaria,  a  city 
which  was  directly  on  the  route  to  Jerusalem,  and  then 
crossing  the  Jordan  visits  Gadara  or  the  even  more 
wonderful  ruins  of  Gerasa  in  Decapolis  {cf.  Matt. 
4:25),  with  its  230  great  columns  and  Corinthian 
pillars,  its  triumphal  arch,  its  magnificent  baths  and 
temples,  its  splendid  theater,  capable  of  seating  6,000 
spectators,  and  its  newly  excavated  harbor  for  naval 
engagements — a  Bible  student  comes  away  with  a  new 
impression  of  the  surroundings  of  the  Founder  of 
Christianity. 
"  Op.  cit.,  p.  177. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  Z7?> 

2.  New  Light  on  the  First  Century  from 
Pompeii 

August  Mau,  in  the  great  work  to  which  every 
student  of  Pompeian  Hfe  is  indebted,  has  said :  "Pompeii, 
as  no  other  source  outside  the  pages  of  classical  authors, 
helps  us  to  understand  the  ancient  man."  ^^ 

But  even  this  does  not  state  the  complete  fact.  The 
classics  only  incidentally  reveal  the  life  of  the  middle 
and  lower  classes ;  but  in  Pompeii  we  see  the  scribblings 
and  sports  of  these  classes,  in  which  we  are  now  so 
intensely  interested.  To  the  New  Testament  student  as 
to  no  other,  Pompeii  appeals,  since  we  here  see  a 
concrete  illustration  of  the  civilization  contemporaneous 
with  the  apostles;  for  it  was  in  the  twenty  years  pre- 
ceding the  destruction  of  Pompeii  that  all  the  synoptic 
gospels  were  written,  together  with  all  Paul's  great 
letters,  and  in  fact  the  entire  New  Testament  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  very  small  pieces  and  perhaps  the 
gospel  of  John. 

The  culture  of  this  country  town  in  Italy  was 
superior  in  certain  respects  to  the  average  town  of 
Palestine,  Egypt,  and  Syria;  yet  the  life  of  the  middle 
and  lower  classes  was  fundamentally  the  same.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten,  also,  that  culture  was  not  con- 
fined to  Italy,  as  has  recently  been  very  conclusively 
proved  by  the  excavations.  There  is  no  single  work 
of  architecture  in  Pompeii  that  imprest  the  writer  as 
much  as  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  synagog  in  Capernaum 
and  those  other  great  ruins  at  Chorazin  and  Samaria, 
or  the  extraordinary  and  immense  ruins  at  Timgad  in 
Northern  Africa,  all  of  which  date  from  the  first 
century. 

^'Pompeii,  Its  Life  and  Art,  Kelsay  ed.,  1904,  p.  511, 


374     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

While  no  palace  in  Pompeii  could  compare  in  ele- 
gance with  the  Villa  of  Hadrian — out  of  which  came 
almost  all  the  art  treasures  of  the  Naples  Museum,  con- 
trasted with  which  our  finest  palaces  would  rank  as 
common  bungalows — yet  the  house  of  the  Vettii,  of 
the  Silver  Faun,  or  of  the  Golden  Cupids,  exceeds  in 
beauty  the  average  residence  of  modern  men  of 
wealth.  The  best  houses  may  not  even  yet  have  been 
uncovered,  for  Cicero  had  a  villa  near  here  where  he 
wrote  his  famous  De  Officiis;  and  Nero  in  a.d.  64,  mur- 
dered one  of  the  officials  in  order  to  take  possession 
of  his  property.  The  jewelry  and  ornaments  found  in 
Pompeii  and  especially  in  Herculaneum  were  rich  and 
artistic,  while  one  blue  glass  vase  ranks  only  second 
to  the  celebrated  Portland  vase,  the  pride  of  the  British 
Museum;  and  the  horde  of  seventy  beautiful  bowls,  in 
South  Gallic  style,  discovered  in  one  house  in  Pompeii 
in  188 1,  proves  that  the  importation  of  foreign  ware 
was  common. 

There  was  not  the  same  comfort  in  the  home  life 
of  Pompeii  as  is  common  in  modern  times,  for  stich 
comfort  is  unknown  even  now  in  the  East;  but  the 
plumbing  and  heating  was  adequate,  baths  and  foun- 
tains were  numerous,  the  marble  center-tables  .  and 
ornamental  stands  were  as  beautiful  as  any  to-day, 
while  the  kettles  and  pots  and  ''self-cookers"  found  in 
the  kitchens  prove  that  the  people  lived  well.  There 
were  three  public  baths,  the  largest  of  which  covered 
as  much  ground  as  the  Houses  of  Parliament  in  Lon- 
don. In  the  Forum  baths  alone,  1,300  lamps  have  been 
found,  and  there  were  sixteen  independent  water-jets 
in  the  house  of  the  Vettii.^^     Pictures  of  the  dining- 

"  Alberto  Piso  and  William  Mackenzie,  Pompeii,  1910,  p.  120. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  375 

rooms  show  the  table  surrounded  with  couches  each 
made  to  accommodate  three  persons.  "The  diner  rested 
on  his  left  arm  on  a  cushion  at  the  side  nearer  the 
table  and  stretched  his  feet  out  toward  the  right. 
Hence  the  first  on  the  upper  couch  had  what  was 
called  'the  highest  place.'  The  one  next  was  said  to 
recline  'below'  him,  because  lying  on  the  side  toward 
which  the  first  person  extended  his  feet;  the  man  at 
the  outer  end  of  the  lower  couch  was  said  to  be  'at  the 
foot.'  When  in  the  gospel  of  John  we  read  of  a  dis- 
ciple 'lying  on  Jesus'  breast,'  the  meaning  is  easily  ex- 
plained by  reference  to  Roman  usage;  John  was  re- 
clining in  the  place  next  below  the  Master."  ^^ 

The  Pompeians  loved  sports.  Their  large  stone 
theater  had  been  built  for  a  hundred  years  before  the 
first  stone  theater  in  Rome  (55  B.C.);  and  when  the 
Romans  built  their  first  stone  amphitheater  (about 
29  B.C.)  the  Pompeians  had  already  been  enjoying 
theirs  for  some  fifty  years.  The  small  theater  was  used 
specifically  as  a  music  hall,  and  the  barracks  of  the 
gladiators  were  established  in  the  colonnade  of  this 
theater.  The  gladiatorial  combats  were  frequent  and 
on  a  large  scale  for  so  small  a  town,  thirty  or  forty 
pairs  fighting  each  day  of  the  show,  the  amphitheater 
being  large  enough  to  accommodate  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  20,000  people.  It  was  not  alone  the  combatants 
that  were  killed  at  these  theatrical  exhibitions,  for  a 
record  remains  of  a  riot,  a.d.  59,  in  which  many  of  the 
populace  met  their  death. 

All  these  public  buildings  and  all  the  better  class 
houses  were  decorated  with  wall  paintings  which  show 
at  their   best   "refinement   in   the   choice   of   subjects, 

^  Mau,  op.  cU^  P.  2Q. 


376     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

fertility  in  the  composition,  firmness  of  touch  in  the 
drawing,  and  exquisite  finish  in  even  the  smallest  de- 
tails" (Mau).  Expert  artists  can  speak  of  the  frescoes 
in  the  villa  discovered  in  1909  as  representing  a  "very 
natural  and  noble  art,"  and  of  the  cupids  and  psyches 
in  the  house  of  the  Vettii  "as  very  dainty  and  charm- 
ing," "revelling  in  brilliance  and  variety  of  color,"  "a 
perfect  blaze  of  harmonic  polychromy,"  expressing 
"delicacy  of  touch,  fertility  of  invention,  novelty  of 
theme — the  blossoming  of  a  new  life" — "a  living  art 
not  a  series  of  mechanical  replicas,"  a  style  "that 
passed  into  early  Christian  art"  and  "profoundly  in- 
fluenced the  artists  of  the  Renaissance."  " 

Yet  the  fact  is  that  in  some  rooms  these  beautiful 
cupids,  instead  of  being  represented  as  vine-dressers, 
goldsmiths,  or  flower  merchants,  blacksmiths  or  sellers 
of  oil,  are  painted  engaged  in  such  evil  actions,  watli 
such  devilish  ingenuity  of  imagination,  that  ordinary 
visitors  to  the  ruined  city  are  not  allowed  to  see  them. 
When  the  present  writer  was  taken,  in  191 3,  through 
the  new  street  which  had  just  been  discovered,  he 
found  that  the  walls  of  the  houses  fronting  the  street 
were  covered  with  such  abominable  pictures  that  the 
excavator  had  covered  them  with  sheets  so  that  his 
working  men  might  not  be  debauched  by  them.  The 
street  was  straight  and  broad,  the  houses  were  well 
built  of  brick  and  concrete,  and  the  balconies  covered 
with  tile  exactly  such  as  are  used  for  roofs  now;  but 
the  unblushing  immoral  tone  of  the  town's  life  was 
below  anything  that  can  be  found  in  any  European  or 

"  Gerhart  Rodenwaldt,  Die  Komposition  der  ponipejanischen  Wandge- 
indlde,  1909;  Alberto  Pisa,  Pompeii,  1910;  R.  A.  Briggs,  Pompeian  Decora- 
tions, 1911;  Revue  archeologique,  1915,  pp.  321-347;  Journal  of  Hellenic 
Studies,  XVI.,  143-157. 


A  WISE  SHOP  OR  "SALUOX"  KECEXTLY  DISCOVERED  AT  i'O-MrEll 
"Xotizie  Deeli   Soavi  Di   Antioliita."   1012,   p.    114 


DKOXZE  DOUR   OF  A   KO.\E\.\    \1LLA 

IN   POMPEII 

"Xotizie  Degli  Scavi,"  etc.,   1910.   fig.   iv'. 


W.\LL   I'KTLRE  l-RUM  A   TOMPEIAN 
VILLA 
"Xotizie  Degli  Scali,"  etc.,   1010,   flg.   iv 


A     BLASPHEMOUS    CKLXIFIX 

(Third  Century) 
From   Marucchl,    "Klements   d'archeologie 

clui'tieiine.  I,  r.S 


C(JLOSSAL   SEATED   STATL'E  OF  TIBERIUS 
Tlie  Vatican 


THE  MARK  OF  THE  BEAST 

Seal  of  the   "Divine  Csesar"    (A.D.   5-6) 

From  A.  Deissmann's  "Light  from  the  Ancient 

East."  p.   345 


^■1E^\'  OF  THE  AITTAN  WAY 


ANCIENT   RELICS   FROM   ROME 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  377 

American  city  to-day.  In  the  worst  sections  of  the 
worst  cities  such  obscene  scrawls,  cleaHng  with  the 
depths  of  human  depravity,  could  not  remain  un- 
touched by  the  public  censor. 

Modern  civilization  is  not  chiefly  a  matter  of  better 
inventions  but  of  better  morals. 

In  the  House  of  the  Surgeon  was  found  a  number 
of  instruments  exactly  such  as  our  best  surgeons  now 
use.  The  bronze  bust  of  Caecilius  Jucundus,  the 
banker  of  Pompeii,  whose  receipts  and  legal  documents, 
carefully  signed  by  nine  witnesses,  have  come  down  to 
us  from  A.D.  15,  A.D.  27,  A.D.  52-62,  shows  a  typical 
capitalist's  face  and  would  not  look  out  of  place  in  the 
office  of  any  modern  captain  of  industry ;  while  the  bar- 
room, found  two  or  three  years  ago,  with  marble 
counter  and  with  glasses  and  decanters  in  place,  was 
almost  exactly  like  a  modern  bar-room,  even  to  the  hot 
lunches  offered  with  drinks;  but  behind  the  veneer  of 
Avealth  and  civilization  there  was  a  moral  rottenness 
which  no  one  seemed  to  care  to  hide.  The  people  were 
not  all  wicked ;  yet  I  do  not  wonder  that  one  man,  prob- 
ably a  Jew,  scribbled  on  the  wall  one  day,  "Sodom!" 
"Gomorrah!"  Other  scribblings  reveal  the  life  of  the 
city  equally  well.  One  of  the  most  curious  of  these 
graiUti  speaks  of  Harmonia  saying,  "The  number  of 
her  beautiful  name  is  45."  The  name  Harmonia,  of 
course,  suggests  the  "Muses"  and  45=1  +2  +  3  +  4  +  5  + 
6  +  7  +  8  +  9,  and  is  therefore  a  number  of  perfection. 
So  666  (Rev.  13 :  17)=!  +  2  +  3  up  to  36,  and  36=1  +  2  + 
3+4  +  5  +  6  +  7  +  8.^®     It   would    seem   more    likely   to 

^  Numerical  identifications  are  never  demonstrative.  One  scholar 
has  actually  suggested  that  the  Beast  of  the  Apocalypse  was  numeri- 
cally equal  to  the  Gnostic  "'Wisdom,"  Journal  Theol.  Studies,  XIV.,  444. 


378    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  writer  that  666  would  equal  the  subhuman  or 
demonic  as  compared  with  yyy,  the  symbol  of  ab- 
solute human  perfection,  while  888,  the  common  "num- 
ber" of  Jesus  Christ,  would  represent  the  super- 
human.^^ If  6i6  is  the  real  "number"  of  the  beast,  as 
it  is  according  to  the  most  ancient  text,  then  there  can 
be  no  doubt  whatever  as  to  its  meaning;  for  it 
numerically  represents  Kaiaap  08og — the  "God 
Caesar,"  against  whom  the  "Lord  Jesus"  was  opposed. 

That  this  rather  mystic  method  of  expressing 
thought  was  very  common  during  St.  John's  lifetime  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  even  in  one  of  the  Pompeian 
election  notices  the  vowels  are  distinguished  cryptically 
by  numbers. 

A  favorite  actor  is  mentioned  as  "darling  of  the 
people";  a  certain  gladiator  is  spoken  of  as  "the  glory 
of  the  girls,"  and  a  "lord  among  the  lassies."  A  woman 
is  named  in  this  public  way  followed  by  the  invocation, 
"may  you  sneeze  sweetly!"  Another  amatory  verse 
by  an  unknown  poet  reads: 

"Good  health  be  with  you  lovers  all; 
Who  knows  not  how  to  love  be  cursed." 

Another  effusion  from  a  Pompeian  lover  may  be 
paraphrased : 

"My  fair  girl  has  taught  me  to  hate  brunettes. 
I  never  love  a  dark-haired  woman  except  against  my  will." 

Another  ne'er-do-well  with  a  different  taste  has 
scribbled  something  which  may  be  rather  feebly  trans- 
lated: 

"Dark  maidens  for  me ;  I  always  did  like  blackberries." 

**If  this  is  a  proper  explanation,  the  number  888  must  be  considered 
the  earlier  form,  and  "Jesus  Christ  Saviour  of  Man"  its  later  explanation. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  379 

One  scrawl  reads,  "He  who  has  never  been  in  love 
can  be  no  gentleman,"  and  still  another,  "All  lovers 
come!  I  purpose  to  break  the  ribs  of  Venus  and  to 
smash  the  small  of  her  back  with  clubs,"  and  still 
another  placard,  whether  of  warning  or  praise,  it  may- 
be difficult  to  say,  reads,  "Restitutus  has  many  times 
deceived  many  girls."  Many  of  the  graifiti  found  in 
the  city  are  of  such  a  character  that  they  can  not  be 
quoted;  many  more  are  of  a  personal  nature  such  as 
the  following: 

"Samius  to  Cornelius:  Go  hang  yourself." 
"Pyrrhus  to  his  chum  Chius :  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  you  are 
dead." 

One  of  the  most  valuable  of  the  wall-paintings  dis- 
covered 1911-13,  represents  a  large  religious  procession 
carrying  a  statue  of  Cybele.  The  crowd  is  large  and 
drest  in  brilliant  costume.  One  woman  is  noticeable 
for  her  blond  hair  and  green  dress.  A  priestess  who 
is  inviting  the  populace  to  the  sacrifice  also  wears  a 
green  dress  and  green  crown.  The  priest  wears  a 
white  tunic  striped  with  purple  and  a  white  toga. 
Brown  and  black  shoes  and  stockings  seem  most  pop- 
ular. 

The  most  interesting  placards  are,  however,  the 
election  notices.  There  were  bulletin  boards  at  the 
head  of  the  street  leading  from  the  forum  for  notices 
of  all  kinds,  but  besides  this  the  walls  of  the  houses 
were  freely  used.  One  of  these  on  the  most  public 
street  in  letters  nearly  eight  inches  high,  reads: 

"Make  Publius  Furius  duumvir,  I  beg  you ;  he's  a  good  man." 

Another  notice,  just  uncovered,  reads: 
"Sergius  Felix  recommends  A.  Vettium  as  a  strong  character." 


38o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Another,  which  may  show  the  interest  of  women 
in  poHtics  (as  is  usually  supposed),  or  may  only  be  an 
opponent's  suggestion  that  the  corrupt  women  of  the 
town  were  supporting  Fuscunas,  reads: 


"Asetinas  and  Smyrine  say,  Vote  for  Fuscunas  as  your  alder- 


man. 


So   in    a   text    published    in    1912,    Julius    Polybius    is 
"recommended"  by  Smyrina  and  H.  Priscus. 

About  1600  of  these  election  notices  have  been 
found,  the  qualifications  of  the  candidates  being  boldly 
set  forth,  as: 

"He  is  worthy  of  public  office ;  he  is  a  good  fellow" ;  "He  is 
an  upright  young  man" ;  "He  will  be  the  watchdog  of  the 
treasury."    "This  young  man  is  honest  and  is  worthy  of  election." 

Occasionally  a  man  who  has  recommended  a  can- 
didate draws  a  line  through  his  name  later,  indicating, 
probably,  that  for  some  reason  he  has  withdrawn  his 
support. 

While  most  of  these  recommendations  are  from 
individuals,  many  of  them  are  from  the  different  guilds 
and  trade  unions,  such  as  barbers,  carpenters,  laundry- 
men,  pastry  cooks,  inn-keepers,  masons,  bakers,  etc. 
The  muleteers,  porters,  fishermen,  apprentices,  ball 
players,  and  even  the  schoolmasters  and  their  pupils 
have  their  political  "say"  in  this  public  way,  and  in  at 
least  a  few  instances  recommendations  for  a  candidate 
come  from  the  "late  drinkers,"  the  "loafers,"  the 
"sneak  thieves,"  the  "assassins,"  and  from  "all  the 
people  who  are  asleep!"  These  are  placards  evidently 
put  up  by  the  opposing  candidate.  The  shops  and  even 
the  gravestones  are  desecrated  by  these  election  notices, 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  381 

which  are  sometimes  painted  and  sometimes  scrawled 
in  charcoal. 

The  above  shows  the  frivolity  and  careless  sport  of 
the  town ;  yet  many  were  trying  to  be  religious.  There 
is  no  intention  of  suggesting  that  Pompeii  was  more 
frivolous  than  other  towns  of  the  first  century.  Prob- 
ably Neapolis  (Naples),  being  a  watering-place,  was 
more  frivolous  than  Pompeii.  This  town  merely  repre- 
sents the  ordinary  life  of  the  Roman  world.  The 
tendency  fifty  years  ago  was  to  overestimate  the  frivolity 
and  sin  of  this  era.  Scholars  have  now  generally  gone 
to  the  opposite  extreme.  Many  street  altars  have  been 
found,  one  being  dug  up  two  or  three  years  ago  with  the 
offering  still  upon  it ;  and  in  front  of  many  a  house  can 
yet  be  seen  painted  the  symbol  of  Hermes — a  wand  with 
two  serpents  twisted  about  it,  warning  off  loiterers  from 
the  premises.  Very  few  indications  of  intellectuality  and 
love  for  literature  have  been  found  in  this  country  town, 
tho  there  is  a  picture  of  a  girl  with  a  writing  tablet  in  her 
left  hand  holding  the  end  of  a  stylus  against  her  lips 
"as  if  pondering  what  to  write,"  and  that  of  a  young 
man  with  one  end  of  a  roll  of  papyrus  under  his  chin. 
One  wall-painting  pictures  an  elderly  man  and  three 
younger  ones  writing  in  the  open  air,  probably  rep- 
resenting an  open-air  school,  since  another  boy  "is 
receiving  his  moral  instruction  in  more  tangible  form 
upon  the  bare  back"  (Alberto  Pisa).  An  Egyptian 
priest  is  also  pictured  chanting  before  the  goddess  Bast 
from  a  papyrus  text  {Ancient  Egypt,  19 16,  p.  17). 
While  this  proves  that  in  Pompeii,  as  everywhere  else  in 
the  apostolic  era,  the  people  could  read  and  write,  it  is 
quite  evident  that  education  was  not  a  strong  point  of 
its  population.     A  study  of  all  the  relics  left  in  this 


382     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

town — whose  famous  mountain  for  the  first  time  became 
volcanic  a  few  months  after  Paul  stopt  at  its  port — 
leaves  the  impression  that  its  view  of  life  was  the  same 
as  that  found  on  a  gaming-table  at  Timgad:^^ 

This  may  not  have  been  the  view  of  life  taken  by 
the  Jewesses  Mary  and  Martha,  who  worked  for  a 
Pompeian  weaver,  nor  of  those  other  Jews  for  whom 
Umbricius  Scaurus  manufactured  the  special  fish  sauce 
which  he  marked  "Pure"  (Casta) ;  but  it  undoubtedly 
represented  the  general  spirit  of  the  people. 

The  town  was  utterly  destroyed  two  or  three  years 
after  Paul  stopt  for  an  entire  week  within  a  few  miles 
of  it  on  his  journey  to  Rome  (Acts  28:  14).  If  he 
visited  it,  as  is  very  possible,  he  may  have  seen  the 
large  wall-painting  of  the  Pompeian  Venus  drawn  by 
elephants  in  a  quadriga,  which  was  dug  up  three  or 
four  years  ago,  and  he  may  have  met  som^e  of  the  very 
men  who  were  a  little  later  in  the  bar-room  previously 
mentioned,  drinking  at  the  marble  counter  on  the  night 
of  the  catastrophe.  At  any  rate,  the  very  cash  box 
which  was  found  in  its  place  in  the  wine  room  with 
the  bronze  and  silver  coins  in  it,  just  as  they  were  re- 
ceived as  the  fatal  eruption  began,  was  probably  the 
same  as  was  being  used  when  the  sailors  on  Paul's 
ship  ran  over  from  Puteoli  in  order  to  see  the  sights 
of  this  famous  little  city  in  the  year  a.d.  59  or  60.'^ 

^  Veiiari,  lavare,  ludere,  ridere — hoc  est  vivere — "To  hunt,  to  bathe,  to 
gamble,  to  laugh,  this  is  indeed  to  live." 

^  There  were  five  coins  of  silver  and  twenty-seven  of  bronze  found  in 
this  saloon  minted  under  Augustus,  Vespasian  and  Nero.  Besides  personal 
observation,  my  authority  for  these  most  ancient  discoveries  is  the  Nuovo 
BuUetino  die  Archeologia  Christiana,  1912,  pp.  102^.,  185^. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  383 

3.  New  Light  on  the  First  Century  from  the 
Roman  Catacombs 

The  mass  of  new  material  brought  to  light  in  Rome 
in  the  last  forty  years  is  without  a  parallel  in  history. 
The  excavations,  during  which  270,000,000  cubic  feet 
of  earth  have  been  displaced,  have  uncovered  pottery, 
inscriptions,  tombs,  and  private  houses  in  almost  in- 
credible quantities.  Yet  none  of  these  are  equal  in 
value  for  Christian  antiquity  to  the  discoveries  in  the 
catacombs.  In  order  that  the  later  work  may  be  ap- 
preciated a  summary  of  the  earlier  excavations  must 
be  given.^* 

The  catacombs  represent  the  most  notable  monu- 
ments of  primitive  Christianity  which  have  come  down 
to  us.  They  are  entirely  of  Christian  construction  and 
did  not  originate,  as  was  formerly  supposed,  out  of 
ancient  stone  quarries,  but  are  hewn  out  of  the  tufa 
rock.  The  vastness  of  these  labyrinths  awakens  aston- 
ishment when  we  consider  the  poverty  of  the  early 
Christians.  "This  work  of  giants  was  completed  by  a 
community  of  poor  men  destitute  of  resources,  without 
talent  as  without  fortune,  incessantly  persecuted  and 
frequently  decimated  .  .  .  With  one  hand  they  con- 
structed in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  a  city  more  astonish- 
ing than  Babylon ;  .  .  .  with  the  other  seizing  on  the 
pagan  world  in  the  abyss  of  degradation  they  raised 
it  .  .  .  and  suspended  it  to  the  cross"  (Abbe  Gaume). 

**Altho  the  writer  has  visited  the  oldest  catacombs  at  Rome,  he  has 
no  independent  judgment  concerning  them,  and  the  facts  and  generaliza- 
tions from  the  earlier  period  have  been  gathered  chiefly  from  the  great 
work  of  De  Rossi  (Northcote  and  Brownlow  ed.  1869),  and  from  the 
summaries  of  recent  excavations  given  by  other  specialists.  For  the  more 
recent  excavations  he  has  been  mainly  dependent  upon  the  reports  of  Dr. 
Orazio  Marucchi  in  the  Nuovo  Bullettino  di  Archeologia  Christiana,  and 
his  invaluable  Christian  Epigraphy  (1912). 


384    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

These  catacombs  were  dug  along  several  of  the  prin- 
cipal streets  leading  out  from  Rome,  and  if  the  galleries 
were  extended  in  a  straight  line  they  would  reach,  ac- 
cording to  De  Rossi,  at  least  550  miles.  They  are  narrow 
passages  with  graves  on  the  right  and  left,  the  number 
of  which  has  been  estimated  at  nearly  two  millions. 
They  were  evidently  built  on  Jewish  models,  the  Jews 
having  made  such  underground  cemeteries  near  Rome 
in  pre-Christian  time.  Several  of  these  Jewish  cata- 
combs remain,  containing  pictures  which  represent  the 
olive  branch,  the  dove,  the  palm,  the  seven-branched 
candlestick,  and  a  number  of  inscriptions,  prominent 
among  which  may  be  seen  the  Hebrew  word  Uu^ 
"Peace."  Up  to  a.d.  70,  the  early  Christians  were 
legally  regarded  as  Jews  by  the  Roman  government, 
and  could  doubtless  be  buried  in  Jewish  catacombs  or 
in  graves  of  their  own  without  fear.  Burial  places, 
even  of  criminals,  were  sacredly  respected  by  the 
Roman  Empire,  so  that  for  several  generations  Chris- 
tian cemeteries  were  not  disturbed. 

By  the  end  of  the  first  century  Christianity  had 
already  won  a  number  of  wealthy  heathen  converts, 
and  these  permitted  the  poorer  Christians  to  construct 
burial  places  in  connection  with  their  magnificent 
private  tombs.  A  characteristic  inscription  is  "M.  M. 
made  this  hypogeum  for  himself  and  his  (brethren) 
who  believed  in  the  Lord." 

The  earliest  of  the  catacombs,  those  of  Domitilla, 
Priscilla,  Commodilla,  the  crypt  of  Lucina,  etc.,  are 
accepted  practically  by  all  scholars  as  dating  back  to 
the  first  century.  In  the  third  century  these  cemeteries 
were  violated  during  the  persecutions  of  Valerian 
(a.d.  258)   and  Diocletian   (a.d.  303-305),  and  in  the 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  385 

sixth  century  by  the  Goths.  De  Rossi  found  in  the 
cemetery  of  CaHxtus  a  mysterious  stairway  hanging  in 
mid-air  which  indicated  that  at  one  time  this  catacomb 
was  used  as  a  hiding-place  by  persecuted  Christians, 
but  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  they  were  not  often  used 
for  this  purpose.  It  is  now  equally  clear  that  preaching 
was  not  ordinarily  conducted  in  many  of  them,  altho 
the  Chapel  of  St.  Priscilla  is  an  exception,  a  pulpit 
having  been  erected  there  behind  the  coffin  of  an 
ancient  martyr;  and  a  baptistry  has  also  been  found 
in  the  catacomb  of  St.  Pontianus. 

In  something  over  300  years,  more  than  fifty  cata-  / 
combs  have  been  dug  up,  the  greater  number  of  these/ 
belonging  to  the  fourth  century.  The  Emperor  Con-j 
stantine  set  the  example  of  building  churches  over  the 
graves  of  the  martyrs;  but  while  Christian  cemeteries 
above  ground  became  common,  the  catacombs  were 
still  used  and  revered,  and  the  old  graves  during  this 
century  were  adorned  with  marbles  and  inscriptions. 
The  invasion  of  Alaric  a.d.  410,  put  an  end  to  burial  in 
the  catacombs  and  no  inscription  is  dated  later  than 
this.  By  the  eighth  century  these  sacred  cemeteries 
had  been  deserted,  some  of  them  being  turned  into 
sheep  stables;  soon  the  popes  began  to  transfer  the 
remains  of  the  martyrs  to  the  great  cathedrals.  From 
the  tenth  to  the  sixteenth  century  they  were  al- 
most completely  forgotten,  excepting  those  of  St. 
Sebastiano,  which  continued  to  be  visited  by  pil- 
grims. In  1578  one  of  the  catacombs  was  ac- 
cidentally discovered  by  Antonio  Bosio,  who  thereupon 
spent  forty  years  in  studying  these  hidden  ruins,  pub- 
lishing his  results  in  1632.  The  "true  Columbus"  of  the 
catacombs,  however,  was  Giovanni  Battista  de  Rossi 


386     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

(d.  1894),  who  "created  from  the  foundations  a  science 
of  cemetery  topography  which  he  based  upon  sohd  and 
unshakeable  criteria,"  pubhshing  his  results  in  three 
splendid  volumes.^^  In  1890  De  Rossi  made  one  of  his 
greatest  discoveries,  finding  certain  galleries  "that  had 
not  been  touched  since  they  were  filled  in  during  the 
Diocletian  persecution."  The  loculi  or  shelves  in  the 
rock  used  as  graves  were  intact  and  the  epitaphs  still 
in  their  places,  so  that  "they  formed  a  kind  of  museum 
in  which  the  development,  the  formulse,  and  the 
symbols  of  epigraphy  from  its  origin  to  the  end  of  the 
third  or  fourth  century  can  be  contemplated  ...  in 
the  genuine  and  living  reality  of  their  original  con- 
dition." -^ 

Since  then  Stevenson,  Armellini,  Marucchi,  Wil- 
pert,  Lanciani,  and  others  have  carried  on  De  Rossi's 
work.  Several  thousands  of  dollars  have  been  ex- 
pended each  year  by  the  Holy  See  for  this  purpose, 
and  "there  has  been  dug  up  a  treasure  of  early  Chris- 
tian epitaphs  and  paintings,  valuable  beyond  all  ex- 
pectations, which  has  given  much  unlooked  for  infor- 
mation concerning  the  faith  of  the  early  Christians, 
their  concepts  of  life,  hopes  of  eternity,  family  relations, 
etc." '' 

Even  as  early  as  1873  there  was  found  under  an 
ancient  basilica  a  bas-relief  representing  the  martyr 
Acilleus  (a.d.  391-395)  receiving  his  death  blow  from 
the  executioners.     Acilleus  was  a  martyr  of  the  first 

^Nuova  Ronia  SotterraneOj  1864-1877. 

^  Bullettino;  1884,  p.  68.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  uncovered  the 
wonderfully  beautiful  chamber  of  Ampliatus,  its  frescos  rivaling  those 
of  the  Golden  House  of  Nero  and  so  ancient  that  he  identified  it  as  that 
of  the  friend  of  St.  Paul  (Rom.  16:8). 

"Anton  de  Waal,  Catholic  Encyclopaedia,  III.,  417-426. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  387 

century  and  is  represented  tied  to  a  stake  which  is  sur- 
mounted by  a  cross.  The  cross  is  crowned  by  a 
triumphal  wreath  as  a  symbol  of  the  immortal  recom- 
pense which  awaits  the  confessor  of  the  faith.  The 
picture  and  inscription  dates  from  the  fourth  century, 
the  inscription  being  erected  by  Pope  Damasus: 

"They  had  enrolled  with  fearful  heart  in  the  army  and  were 
performing  their  cruel  functions  prepared  to  serve  .  .  .  the  will 
of  a  tyrant  looking  to  his  every  order.  With  marvelous  faith 
they  suddenly  put  aside  their  madness  and  turning  in  flight  they 
leave  the  unholy  camp  of  their  commander,  hurl  away  their 
shields,  their  breast  plates  and  their  bloody  weapons  and,  confess- 
ing their  faith,  rejoice  to  conduct  the  triumphal  celebrations  of 
Christ."  28 

Many  beautiful  inscriptions  date  from  Damasus, 
the  "poet  of  the  martyrs"  (a.d.  366-384),  the  most  im- 
pressive being  his  own  epitaph: 

"Here  I,  Damasus,  confess  that  I  wished  to  place  my  members 
but  I  feared  to  disturb  the  holy  ashes  of  the  saints.  .  .  .  He 
who  walked  upon  the  fierce  waves  of  the  sea  and  stilled  them  at 
his  command  .  .  .  who  could  loose  the  bonds  of  death  from 
Lazarus  .    .    .  he,  I  believe,  will  make  Damasus  to  rise  again."  ^^ 

During  1887  over  eight  hundred  tombs  were 
opened  in  nine  months,  among  which  was  the  tomb  of 
a  boot-maker  with  the  tools  of  his  trade  pictured  on 
the  gravestone.  Even  earlier  than  this  the  tomb  of 
a  surgeon  had  been  found  with  his  surgical  instruments 
figured  in  the  marble,  and  the  tomb  of  a  dentist  with 
his  forceps.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  while  gold- 
plating  was  excellently  done  in  the  first  century,  few 

^  Latin  text  in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  V.,  498. 

^  For  other  inscriptions  of  Damasus,  see  Marucchi,  op.  cit.,  pp.  415-435. 
Cf.  J.  H.  Treat,  Catacombs  of  Rome,  p.  35.  The  name  of  his  mother — 
Laurentia — has  recently  been  discovered.  His  father,  who  had  been  a 
shorthand  writer,  took  holy  orders  early  in  life,  after  which  his  wife  took 
the  vow  of  chastity,  lasting  sixty  years. 


388    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

if  any  instances  of  gold  filling  have  been  preserved.^" 
Many  tradesmen  appear  in  the  inscriptions — carpenters, 
masons,  curriers,  wool-combers,  shoemakers,  black- 
smiths, weavers,  vine-dressers,  bakers,  gardeners, 
cooks,  charcoal  sellers,  stone-dressers,  tent-makers,  etc., 
often  with  the  tools  of  their  trade.  A  few  physicians 
and  teachers,  many  clerks,  a  few  soldiers,  and  one 
racing  charioteer  were  buried  as  Christians.  The 
epitaphs  of  several  Christian  senators  and  a  number 
of  ladies  who  were  members  of  senatorial  families 
have  been  found,  but  none  which  are  so  impressive 
as  this  inscription  from  the  grave  of  a  Lycaonian 
soldier,  Marcus  Julius,  who  writes  (earlier  than  a.d. 
311): 

"Having  suffered  many  annoyances  from  the  general,  I  re- 
signed my  military  commission,  holding  fast  to  the  Christian 
faith." 

In  1884  the  house  and  tomb  of  the  Licinii  Calpurnii 
were  discovered,  the  former  being  the  richest  and  most 
important  palace  found  in  a  generation,  the  latter  con- 
taining the  burial  urns  of  these  princes  of  the  time  of 
Nero,  but  with  the  urns  broken  and  the  ashes  scattered 
to  the  four  winds. 

In  1 888  the  crypt  of  the  Acilii  Glabrlones  was  dis- 
covered, a  family  very  famous  in  the  first  century.  In 
1885  a  sarcophagus  of  the  daughter  of  a  Christian  cap- 
tain of  the  ninth  battalion  of  the  Pretorian  Guard  was 
dug  up,  and  even  earlier  than  this  an  entire  cemetery 
of  Christian  soldiers  was  discovered.  It  may  have 
been  in  the  barracks  of  these  soldiers  that  several 
graiUti  were  found,  dating  from  early  in  the  third  cen- 

^"Lanciani,  Pagan  and  Christian  Rome,  p.  364. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  389 

tury,  in  which  ridicule  was  offered  to  those  who  had 
become  Christians.  The  most  famous  is  the  well- 
known  scrawl  in  which  a  crucified  man  is  represented 
with  an  ass's  head  and  underneath  it  the  sneer: 

"Alexamenos  worships  his  god !" 

The  same  occurs  again  with  the  sneering  epithet, 
"The  faithful!"  Another  soldier  appears,  bearing  the 
title,  "Libanus  the  bishop!" 

One  of  the  most  successful  recent  explorations  was 
conducted  1897- 1900,  when  a  fine  double  crypt  with 
frescos  representing  Christ  seated  between  six  saints 
was  discovered  in  the  cemetery  of  Domitilla,  and 
another  fine  fresco  of  Christ  seated  among  the  apostles 
on  the  day  of  judgment  was  found  in  the  catacomb  of 
Santi  Pietro  e  Marcellino.  To  the  epitaphs  of  four 
popes  discovered  by  De  Rossi  a  fifth  was  added,  found 
in  the  crypt  of  St.  Cecilia,  his  only  title  being  "Over- 
seer" (8:iiaxojiog).^^  Since  that  date  a  number  of  other 
inscriptions  and  frescos  and  several  new  catacombs 
have  come  to  light,  but  few  things  have  been  found  of 
preeminent  importance. 

In  1908  Professor  Marucchi  made  a  particularly 
thorough  study  of  the  Cemetery  of  Priscilla,^"  finding  a 
pontifical  basilica  and  an  ancient  baptistry,  and  making 
a  re-examination  of  the  vast  number  of  inscriptions 
found  there,  identifying  this  cemetery  w^th  that  of 
Ostriano.  Seven  years  later  he  continued  these  ex- 
plorations and  found  in  the  very  oldest  part  of  the 
catacomb  fragments  of  a  great  sarcophagus  from  the 
time  of -Damasus  (a.d.  366-384),  and  a  theological  in- 

^^  American  Journal  of  Archccology,  XIII.,  603. 

^Nuovo  Bullettino  di  Archeologia,  Christiana,  1908,  pp.  5-125. 


390     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

scription  containing  the  phrase,  *'the  divine  kingdom  of 
Jesus  Christ." 

In  1911-12  he  excavated  in  the  catacomb  of 
Domitilla,  finding  a  number  of  wall-paintings  and  a 
few  inscriptions.  This  was  the  cemetery  where 
Boldetti  had  discovered  the  remarkable  bronze  medal- 
lion containing  the  portraits  of  Paul  and  Peter  (late 
second  or  early  third  century),  and  much  was  ex- 
pected, but  very  little  of  importance  was  found.^^ 
Another  discovery,  however,  this  same  year  more  than 
repaid  the  excavator  for  all  his  work  and  more  than 
fulfilled  all  his  hopes,  for  in  March  he  began  to  open 
an  old  primitive  subterranean  graveyard  which  proved 
to  be  the  cemetery  of  the  Flavii,  in  which  still  re- 
mained one  particularly  magnificent  sarcophagus 
covered  with  bas-reliefs.  He  also  found  not  far  away 
a  small,  rude  sarcophagus  of  the  fifth  century  repre- 
senting the  Epiphany  and  the  visit  of  the  Magi,  one  of 
the  Magi  carrying  a  lamb  in  his  arms  as  his  gift. 
Another  figure  held  a  volume  in  his  hand,  and  still 
another  picture  represented  Moses  bringing  water 
from  the  rock.  Another  very  magnificent  tomb  un- 
covered this  year  was  that  of  a  presbyter,  Dulcitus 
(early  fourth  century),  in  which  was  an  inscription 
dated  November  3,  369,  recording  the  death  of  the 
deacon,  Gregorus. 

In  November  and  December,  1914,  and  during  the 
early  part  of  191 5,  while  engaged  in  repairing  the 
Cemetery  of  St.  Marcellino,  Marucchi  found  some  in- 
teresting new  inscriptions,  one  of  these  being  written  by 

''Lanciani  accepts  these  "portraits"  of  the  apostles  found  on  this 
medallion  and  on  many  third  century  glass  baptismal  cups.  He  says : 
"The  type  never  varies ;  the  antiquity  and  genuineness  of  both  types  can  not 
be  doubted"  (Pagan  and  Christian  Rome,  p.  212). 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  391 

Jannarius  (third  century)  in  honor  of  his  infant  son 
Africanus,  whom  he  calls  his  ''little  lamb."  A  little 
later,  in  the  most  ancient  part  of  the  cemetery  of 
Domitilla,  three  fragments  of  a  burial  inscription 
erected  by  Fanius  Paulus  to  his  two-year-old  "sweetest 
child,"  Fanius  Leo,  was  found.  The  father  is  recorded 
as  asking  his  infant  son  Leo  to  "pray"  for  his  brethren. 
The  year  191 5  brought  several  other  important  dis- 
coveries, including  a  previously  unknown  Christian 
and  a  Jewish  cemetery,  but  most  spectacular  of  all,  an 
ancient  church,  which  was  found  under  the  basilica  of 
St.  Sebastian  on  the  Appian  Way — \vhere,  according  to 
very  ancient  tradition,  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  were 
temporarily  buried  about  a.d.  258,  during  a  time  of 
persecution  when  the  vaults  of  the  Vatican  were  un- 
safe. In  191 5,  through  the  generosity  of  Mons.  De 
Waal,  thorough  excavations  were  made  here,  near  the 
spot  which  tourists  remember  because  of  the  "three 
springs,"  uncovering,  some  six  feet  beneath  the  floor 
of  the  present  basilica,  a  pagan  columbarium  of  the 
first  century,  and  near  this  an  ancient  building  partially 
destroyed.  While  most  of  the  walls  of  this  very  ancient 
building  were  broken  down,  one  remained  containing 
third  century  paintings  and  fourth  century  graiUti, 
the  latter  referring  frequently  to  Peter  and  Paul,  a  refer- 
ence which  proves  to  Professor  Marucchi's  satisfaction 
that  this  was  the  authentic  site  of  that  ancient  famous 
sepulcher.^* 

A  few  remarks  ought  now  to  be  made  on  the  gen- 
eral bearing  of  the  catacomb  inscriptions  upon  our 
knowledge   of   the    early     Christian    life.      The   most 

^  See  for  the  above  statement  Nuovo  Bullettino,  1912,  pp.  \2Zff.,  \69ff.; 
1914,  pp.  95#.;  1915,  pp.  57#.,  147#.,  152#.;  1916,  p.  516. 


392     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ancient  of  these  inscriptions,  which  are  usually  written 

very  beautifully,  begin  as  early  as  the  first  century  and 

are  very  brief — e.g.,  "Peace";  "Peace  to  thee."     The 

symbols  used  during  the  first  and  second  centuries  are 

few  and  simple,  the  peacock,  the  anchor,  the  trident,  and 

the  ship  with  rigging — the  latter,  perhaps,  representing 

a  hidden  form  of  the  cross.     During  the  third  century, 

which  was  the  period  of  persecution,  the  dove  with  the 

olive  branch  in  its  mouth  appears,  as   also  the  palm 

branch,  crown,  and  fish.     By  the  close  of  the  third  or 

beginning  of  the  fourth  century  the  cross  appears,  and 

the  monogram  of  Christ  containing  the  initial  letters 

of  the   Savior's  name    (X   and  P)    and   the   common 

Ij^Oxjg — which  was  an  acrostic  meaning  "Jesus  Christ, 

Son     of     God."       The     crucifix     does     not     appear 

until    the    seventh    century,  the    cross,  however,  often 

appears  previous  to  this,  the  cross  of  the  crucifixion 

being  painted  green  or  red,  that  of  the  resurrection 

and  ascension  blue  or  white.     By  the  middle  of   the 

fourth  century  appear  the  symbols  of  the  lion,  phoenix, 

cock,  hare,  etc.,  and  by  the  end  of  this  century  the 

glasses  or  mugs  grow  common,  on  the  bottom  of  which 

are  gilded  the  portraits  of  Peter  and  Paul. 

These  little  glasses  were  probably  gifts  received  at 

baptism.     Eighty  of  these  precious  relics  contain  the 

portraits  above  mentioned.     They  also  frequently  bear 

inscriptions  such  as  the  following: 

"Mayest  thou  live  long." 

"A  mark  of  friendship." 

"Life  and  happiness  to  thee  and  thine." 

With  the  Constantine  era  the  dead  are  eulogized 
as  "wholly  good,"  "entirely  innocent,"  etc.,  and  the  in- 
scriptions  take   on    a    triumphal    note:       "Living   in 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  393 

eternity";  "Living  in  God  Christ  forever,"  etc.  With 
the  fifth  century  the  catacomb  inscriptions  cease,  but 
those  above  ground  grow  frequent  and  sarcophagi 
begin  to  appear,  the  latter  having  been  previously 
confined  to  wealthy  cemeteries  like  that  of  Domitilla. 

The  new  joy  of  the  Christian  can  be  seen  to  no 
better  advantage  than  when  these  burial  inscriptions 
are  contrasted  with  the  death  memorials  of  the  con- 
temporaneous Romans.  While  the  common  people 
among  the  Romans  were  at  this  time  cherishing  the 
hope  of  a  future  life,  the  supposed  ''better  class"  held 
very  gloomy  and  pessimistic  views,  the  grave  being 
called  "an  eternal  home"  and  death  "an  eternal  sleep." 
A  typical  inscription  is  "Farewell,  farewell,  farewell 
forever!"  Another  inscription  reads,  "The  cruel  fates 
.  .  .  have  placed  me,  snatched  away,  in  the  infernal 
bark,"  and  still  another,  "I,  Procope,  lift  up  my  hands 
against  the  god  who  snatched  me  away  (being)  in- 
nocent" 

Even  more  pathetic  are  such  cynical  inscriptions 
as  "What  I  have  eaten  and  drunk  I  have  with  me; 
what  I  have  foregone  I  have  lost";  or  "Drink  now  to 
my  memory  and  wish  that  the  earth  may  be  light  on 
me";  or  the  numerous  ones  in  which  life  is  compared 
to  a  play: 

"While  I  lived  I  lived  well.  My  play  is  now  ended ; 
soon  yours  will  be.    "Farewell  and  applaud  me." 

Many  of  the  Roman  epitaphs  and  a  few  Christian 
epitaphs  contain  warnings  to  travelers  not  to  violate 
the  grave. 

In  contrast  with  the  above  we  transcribe  a  few 
Christian  epitaphs  from  the  catacombs:  "Weep  not, 
my   child;   death    is   not    eternal";    "Sweet    Simplicius 


394     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

lives  in  eternity"  (second  century) ;  "Gemella  sleeps 
in  peace";  ''Sweet  little  daughter,  Severa,  beloved  by 
her  parents  and  servants  .  .  .  her  body  rests  here 
in  peace  until  it  shall  rise  again  in  God.  .  .  .  The 
Lord  v^ill  reclothe  her  .  .  .  with  spiritual  glory" 
(about  A.D.  300)  ;  'Tf  I  have  lived  virtuously  I  have 
not  repented  of  it,  and  if  I  have  served  Thee,  O  Lord, 
I  will  give  thanks  to  thy  name"  (second  century)  ; 
'Trosenes  received  to  God"  .  .  .  (a.d.  217)  ;  "Alex- 
ander is  not  dead  but  lives  above  the  stars." 

Other  inscriptions  read:  "She  was  borne  away 
by  angels";  "He  sleeps  but  lives";  "He  went  to  God"; 
"He  reposes  in  the  Lord  Jesus";  "Here  lies  Proteus 
in  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God." 

Many  beautiful  tributes  to  relatives  and  friends 
from  Christians  of  the  earliest  centuries  have  been  pre- 
served, such  as: 

"God's  little  lamb";  "Little  dove  without  gall"; 
"Sweeter  than  honey";  "A  sweet  spirit,  gentle,  wise 
and  beautiful";  "Aurelius  Ampliatus  and  his  son 
Gordian  to  Aurelia  Bonifatia,  his  incomparable  wife,  a 
woman  of  true  chastity,  who  lived  twenty-five  years, 
two  months,  four  days  and  two  hours"  (second  cen- 
tury) ;  "To  her  sweet  nurse,  Paulina,  who  dwells  in 
Christ  among  the  blest" ;  "Peter,  a  most  sweet  adopted 
son  (alumnus)  in  God." 

The  oldest  Christian  inscription,  coming  from  an 
unidentified  catacomb,  was  written  a.d.  72.  One  from 
the  first  century  and  two  from  the  early  second  (a.d. 
107,  no)  came  from  the  catacomb  of  St.  Lucina, 
where,  according  to  De  Rossi,  St.  Paul  was  buried  a 
few  decades  before.^^    The  earliest  of  these  reads : 

^^  Op,  cit.,  p.  6^, 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  395 

"As  a  resting-place  for  Titus  Flavins  Eutychus,  who  lived 
nineteen  years,  eleven  months,  and  three  days.  His  dearest  friend, 
Marcus  Orbius,  gave  this  spot.     Farewell,  beloved." 

Before  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  prayers  to 
martyrs  appear: 

"Holy  souls  have  in  remembrance  Marcianus  Successus 
Severus  and  all  our  brethren  .  .  .  May  (they)  have  a  pros- 
perous voyage."  ^® 

There  are  many  inscriptions  coming  from  the  third 
century,  tho  the  greatest  number  of  all  date  from  the 
fourth. 

The  change  wrought  by  Christianity  in  the  social 
relations  of  master  and  slave  is  plain  from  the  exceed- 
ingly small  number  of  Christian  inscriptions  containing 
the  words  ''slave"  or  *'freedman,"  words  which  are 
constantly  seen  on  pagan  gravestones.  Instead  of  this 
those  formerly  slaves  appear  with  a  new  name, 
''alumnus/*  i.e.,  foster  child.  As  early  as  the  second 
century,  slaves  were  buried  in  the  catacombs  with 
honor.  One  text  (No.  257)  tells  of  the  manumission 
of  seven  slaves  by  one  family  at  the  funeral  of  a  little 
daughter. 

Almost  as  important  as  the  inscriptions  are  the 
specimens  of  the  earliest  Christian  art  preserved  here. 
"These  first  and  second  century  paintings  are  in  the 
most  classical  style,  and  are  scarcely,  if  at  all,  inferior 
in  execution  to  the  best  specimens  of  contemporary 
pagan  art"  (De  Rossi). 

The  earliest  paintings  of  the  Savior  date  at  latest 
from  the  third  century,  and  represent  him  in  the  form 
of  a  shepherd,  clad  like  a  Roman  peasant,  usually  carry- 

"  De  Rossi,  op.  cit.,  p.  133. 


396     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ing  a  lamb  or  kid  in  his  arms  or  being  followed  by  his 
flock,  or  in  a  few  instances  with  the  sheep  on  one  side 
of  him  and  wild  beasts  on  the  other."'^  By  the  fourth 
century  the  garb  and  posture  of  the  Divine  Shepherd 
has  become  stiff  and  conventional  and  the  face  has  lost 
its  youthful  freshness.^^  Some  wall-paintings,  even  as 
late  as  the  fourth  century, 'continue  to  represent  Jesus 
as  a  youth  and  all  the  disciples  as  mere  children;  but 
others  at  this  era  represent  Jesus  as  very  old,  and  the 
twelve  sitting  about  him  at  the  Last  Supper,  looking 
quite  like  aged  Roman  senators.^^  Peter  and  Paul 
often  appear  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  century  paintings, 
the  former  with  broad  face  and  luxuriant  curly  hair  and 
close-cropped  beard,  the  latter  of  much  more  noble  and 
impressive  presence,  having  a  narrow  face,  bald  head, 
and  long  Vandyke  beard. *^  It  is  interesting  to  notice 
that  sometimes  one  and  sometimes  the  other  of  these 
apostles  appears  standing  in  the  place  of  honor  on  the 
right  hand  of  their  divine  Lord/^  There  was  no  at- 
tempt in  the  earliest  pictures  at  making  a  likeness  of 
the  Savior,  the  conception  being  purely  ideal,  repre- 
senting a  beardless  youth  in  the  serene  joy  of  a  noble 
and  divine  task.  Toward  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century  a  new  tendency  appears  in  all  Christian  art, 
perhaps  brought  about  by  the  triumph  of  the  Church 
or  by  an  artistic  desire  to  represent  the  Redeemer  as 
an  oriental.  He  is  now  painted  with  a  beard ;  the  brow 
is  calm,  shaded  by  long  brown  hair  parted  in  the  middle 

"  Giuseppe  Wilpert.  Le  Pitture  delle  Catacombe  Romane,  1903,  Tav.  5, 
106. 

^'^  See  Wilpert,  op.  cit.,  Tav.  168. 
»"  Ibid.,  Tav.  193. 
"/fcid.,  Tav.  48,  252. 
*^  De  Rossi,  op.  cit.,  286. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  397 

and  falling  upon  the  shoulders;  the  eyes  are  large  and 
thoughtful.  In  1887  the  fragment  of  a  marble  bust 
of  this  type,  dating,  it  is  said,  from  the  fourth  century, 
was  discovered.  The  pathetic  representation  of  Christ 
as  the  Man  of  Sorrows  does  not  arise  until  much  later. 

Other  paintings  from  the  third  and  fourth  century 
are  the  Orante  (a  female  figure  in  prayer) ;  the  raising 
of  Lazarus,  the  escape  of  Noah  from  the  deluge,  Isaac 
escaping  the  knife  of  Abraham,  Daniel  escaping  from 
the  den  of  lions,  the  three  Hebrew  children  delivered 
from  the  fiery  furnace,  and  Jonah  escaping  from  the 
sea-dragon — all  of  which  represent  the  Christian's 
escape  from  death  through  Christ;  while  the  appear- 
ance of  the  wise  men  from  the  East  in  adoration  of  the 
infant  Savior  probably  receives  its  prominence  because 
the  Magi  were  the  first  representatives  of  heathendom 
to  give  honor  to  Jesus.  Wilpert  dates  one  Jonah  pic- 
ture as  early  as  the  second  century.*^  In  the  same  way 
pictures  of  Orpheus  taming  wild  beasts  may  have 
symbolized  the  peaceful  sway  of  Christ,  while  Odysseus, 
deaf  to  the  siren's  song,  may  have  represented  the 
Redeemer  triumphing  over  the  allurements  of  sensual 
pleasure." 

The  Eucharist  was  probably  celebrated  at  every 
funeral,  and  it  is  very  natural  to  find  eucharistic 
symbols — the  vine,  baskets  of  bread,  etc. — in  the 
earliest  pictures.  In  most  of  these  pictures  the  fish  is 
also  prominent;  in  a  picture  dated  by  Wilpert  to  the 
second  century  the  basket  of  loaves  is  placed  on  a  fish.'"' 

^  Op.  cit.,  Tav.  47. 

**  Ludwig  von  Sybel's  Chr'istUche  Antike  (2  vols.,  1906-9)   shows,  in  a 
beautiful  way,  the  pictures  on  the  sarcophagi,  mosaics,  etc. 

"  Op.  cit.,  Tav.  27,  28. 


398     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  fisherman  appears  in  many  of  the  wall-paintings, 
and  in  one  inscription  (not  in  the  catacombs)  Chris- 
tians are  spoken  of  as  "the  divine  children  of  the 
Heavenly  Fish."  " 

The  same  pictorial  methods  of  expressing-  religious 
truth  which  were  universal  among  the  heathen  were 
wisely  utilized  by  the  early  Christian  artists.  As  early 
as  the  first  century  (Wilpert)  a  cupid  is  changed  into 
a  Good  Shepherd,  probably  suggesting  that  Christ  was 
the  true  king  of  love.  All  the  great  doctrines  of  salva- 
tion, Christian  eschatology  and  the  divine  nature  of 
Christ,  were  taught  by  symbols.^^ 

The  oldest  picture  of  the  Virgin  Mary  represents 
her  holding  the  divine  Child  on  her  lap,  while  the 
Prophet  Isaiah,  or  perhaps  one  of  the  Magi,  points  to 
the  star  overhead.  This  picture,  which  De  Rossi  dated 
in  the  second  or  perhaps  the  first  century,  has  had  its 
claims  to  antiquity  reinforced  by  recent  discoveries  of 
undoubted  second  century  inscriptions  on  the  same 
level  with  it.  In  these  earliest  pictures  the  Virgin  does 
"not  appear  as  the  central  figure  but  as  accessory  to 
the  divine  Child." '' 

In  the  third  century  the  nimbus  first  appears  about 
the  head  of  our  Lord — not  far  from  the  same  era  when 
a  pagan  artist  placed  it  on  the  imperial  head  in  the 
Arch  of  Constantine.*^''  In  the  early  fourth  century  it 
seems  generally  reserved  for  Christ  and  the  angels, 
but  by  the  end  of  this  century  the  Virgin   and  the 

"  De  Rossi,  op.  cit,  p.  219. 

"American  Journal  of  Archeology,  1911,  pp.  507-522. 

*^  Withrow,  Catacombs,  pp.  307-318. 

^^°  Cf.  Strong,  Roman  Sculpture,  pi.  XL,  XLI,  1907,  and  accompanying 
text.  The  heads  on  this  arch,  originally  Domitian,  have  been  reworked  or 
replaced  to  honor  later  emperors.  I  owe  this  reference  to  the  kindness  of 
Dr.  John  R.  Crawford. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  399 

apostles  are  similarly  decorated,  and  by  the  fifth  cen- 
tury it  begins  to  be  used  for  any  of  the  "saints."  " 

In  the  15,000  Christian  inscriptions  that  De  Rossi 
gathered,  and  in  the  thousands  that  have  been  gathered 
since,  many  suggestions  can  be  obtained  concerning  the 
social  condition  and  the  religious  and  theological  views 
of  those  early  Christians.  Many  of  them  appear  bear- 
ing Biblical  names  such  as  Phoebe,  Prisca,  Aquilius, 
Felix,  Ampliatus,  Epenetus,  Olympias,  Onesimus, 
Philemon,  Asyneritus,  Lucius,  Julia,  Gains,  Timotheus, 
Tychicus,  Crescens,  Urbanus,  Hermogenes,  Tryphena 
and  Trypho(sa),  the  last  two  appearing  together  on 
the  same  stone.  A  light  is  thrown  upon  the  religious 
spirit  of  early  Christian  families  by  the  names  which 
they  were  accustomed  to  give  their  children,  such  as 
Faith,  Constancy,  Peace,  Amiable,  Pure,  Light,  A 
Pilgrim,  Born  of  God,  God-beloved,  Redeemed,  Hand- 
maid of  God,  etc.  It  is  also  significant  that  the  burial 
inscriptions  omit  the  birth  years  but  practically  always 
give  the  date  of  burial,  presumably  because  of  the  feel- 
ing of  the  early  Church  that  death  was  the  Christians' 
"true  birthday,"  as  St.  Cyprian  exprest  it,  and  there- 
fore the  relatives  should  not  wear  black  but  should 
dress  in  white  at  the  funeral  of  believers.  So  Philete 
is  called  a  child  (pnella),  altho  thirty  years  of  age,  be- 
cause she  was  baptized  only  a  few  weeks  before  she 
died.  It  may  be  noticed  also  that  few,  if  any,  appre- 
hensions of  purgatory  are  found  in  the  earliest  inscrip- 
tions, but  a  confident  and  joyous  anticipation  of  im- 
mediate reception  into  the  presence  of  God.  Wedlock 
is  also  honored  in  many  inscriptions.     Only  a  very  few 

*»De  Rossi,  op.  cit.,  pp.  193,  194;  Wilpert,  op.  cit.,  Tav.  116,  141,  207, 
209,  etc. 


400     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

among  the  many  ancient  epitaphs  request  the  dead  in 
heaven  to  pray  for  the  hving  on  earth,  as  (No.  103), 
"Jannaria,  be  thou  refreshed  and  pray  for  us."  More 
often  the  Hving  friends  pray  for  the  dead:  "Lord 
Jesus,  remember  our  daughter,"  etc. 

The  oldest  baptismal  pictures  date,  perhaps,  from  the 
second  century,  coming  from  the  most  ancient  part  of 
the  catacomb  of  St.  Calixtus.  They  all  represent  the 
baptized  standing  in  a  stream  with  the  administrant  on 
dry  ground,  the  former  being  nude,  the  latter  more  or 
less  clothed.  The  very  oldest  picture  represents  the 
new  convert  as  "coming  up  after  immersion  from  the 
river  which  reaches  over  his  knees,  and  joining  hands 
with  the  baptizer,  who  is  drest  in  a  tunic  and  assists  him 
in  ascending  the  shore;  while  in  the  air  hovers  a  dove 
with  a  twig  in  its  mouth.  ...  As  far  as  they  go 
all  of  the  pictures  confirm  the  river  baptism  prescribed 
by  the  Didache  as  the  normal  form,  in  imitation  of  the 
typical  baptism  in  the  Jordan.  .  .  .  From  these  pic- 
torial representations  we  have  a  right  to  draw  the  in- 
ference that  the  immersion  was  as  complete  as  the 
depth  of  the  accessible  stream  or  fount  would  admit, 
and  that  the  defect,  if  any,  was  supplemented  by  pour- 
ing water  on  the  head.  The  baptism  of  the  head  is 
always  the  most  essential  and  indispensable  part  of  the 
baptism." '' 

Presbyters  are  not  distinguished  from  bishops  in 
the  inscriptions.  There  are  numerous  texts  in  which 
presbyters  and  deacons  lament  the  death  of  their  wives, 
and  there  is  very  early  proof  that  the  primitive  church 
possessed  a  female  diaconate  for  administering  charity, 
caring  for  the  sick,  and  instructing  the  young.     There 

""  Philip  Schaff,  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  pp.  36-41. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  401 

is  little  trace  in  the  catacombs  of  that  ascetic  spirit 
which  grew  up  in  the  fourth  and  following  centuries. 
It  is  perfectly  certain  that  those  early  Christians  be- 
lieved in  the  Trinity,  the  deity  of  Christ,  communion 
of  saints,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  life  ever- 
lasting. They  also  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  the  atone- 
ment as  preached  by  St.  Paul.^^  They  seemed,  however, 
to  have  had  too  high  an  appreciation  of  the  value  of 
the  sacraments,  and  too  great  veneration  for  martyrs. 
Some  of  the  recently  discovered  doctrinal  inscriptions, 
such  as  can  not  be  found  in  the  earlier  period,  deserve 
mention : 

"O  thou  who  hast  been  born  again  of  water,  come  with  thy 
fellows  hither  where  the  Holy  Spirit  calleth  thee  to  receive  his 
gifts.  .  .  .  Thou  hast  received  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  learn  to  con- 
quer the  temptations  of  the  world."  ^^ 

In  a  baptistry  said  to  have  been  built  by  Fausta, 
the  wife  of  the  Emperor  Constantine,  the  following 
appears,  written  by  Sextus  III  (fifth  century) : 

"A  race  to  be  dedicated  to  the  heavens  is  born  here  from  beau- 
tiful seed,  which  the  Spirit  nourishes  with  its  fructifying  waters. 
The  fruitful  mother  Church  bears  from  the  virgin  stream  sons 
whom  she  has  conceived  by  the  breath  of  God.  Ye  who  have  been 
born  again  from  this  fountain  hope  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
A  happy  life  awaits  not  those  born  but  once.  This  is  the  fount  of 
life,  which  purifies  the  world,  taking  its  source  from  Christ,  from 
his  wound.  Dip,  sinner,  to  be  purified  in  its  sacred  flood,  and 
though  old  it  will  receive  you  and  bring  you  forth  from  its  waters 
made  new."     (No.  78.) 

One  young  scholar,  utilizing  the  new  archeological 
material,  has  recently  offered  a  very  ingenious  argu- 
ment seeking  to  prove  from  the  pictures  of  the  cata- 

"  See  Albert  Schweitzer,  Paul  and  his  Interpreters,  1912,  p.  248#. 
"  Marucchi,  Op.  cit.,  No.  77. 


402     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

combs  that  St.  John's  gospel  was  in  use  in  Rome  by 
the  end  of  the  first  century,  or  at  least  by  the  opening 
decade  of  the  second,  and  that  it  was  influencing  the 
wall-paintings  in  a  marked  degree  before  the  middle 
of  the  second.  He  shows  from  the  best  authorities  on 
art  that  Biblical  themes  peculiar  to  St.  John — raising 
of  Lazarus  and  the  woman  of  Samaria — are  each 
found  once  before  a.d.  i8o  (one  of  these  almost  cer- 
tainly being  as  early  as  a.d.  130),  while  three  or  four 
other  pictures  of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus  must  be 
dated  to  the  end  of  the  first  or  during  the  second  cen- 
tury. As  these  themes  are  not  treated  in  the  synoptic 
gospels,  but  only  by  St.  John,  the  inference  is  drawn 
that  the  Fourth  Gospel  must  have  become  widely  in- 
fluential before  such  pictures  would  have  been  painted 
on  Christian  tombs.^^  By  a  similar  argument  the  in- 
fluence of  Matthew's  gospel  can  be  proved  from  the 
many  pictures  of  the  Magi,  while  it  may  also  be  shown 
that  no  influence  of  the  apocryphal  gospels  is  apparent 
earlier  than  the  fourth  century. 

4.  New  Light  from  Christian  Cemeteries  in 

Egypt 

Cemeteries  of  Christian  people  dating  from  a  com- 
paratively early  time  have  been  found  in  many  parts 
of  the  world.^*  The  most  remarkable  of  those  known 
previous  to  the  most  recent  finds  were  at  Rome,  Naples, 
Syracuse — where  they  constitute  an  entire  underground 
city — at  Malta  and  in  Alexandria;  but  the  excavations 
of    Christian    graves     (1896- 1900)     at    Antinoe    and 

^'  C.  0.  Lamberton,  Themes  from  John's  Gospel  in  Early  Roman  Cata- 
comb Paintings. 

^*  See  summary  in  New  Schafj-Herzog  Encyclopedia,  "Cemeteries". 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  403 

Akhmim  in  Egypt  outrank  most  of  these  in  importance, 
giving  to  us  a  flood  of  new  light  upon  early  Chris- 
tianity and  the  changes  it  wrought  in  religious  thought 
upon  the  banks  of  the  Nile. 

Other  recent  excavations  of  ancient  cemeteries  arc 
important,  such  as  those  of  Father  Delatre,  near 
Carthage,  in  1905,  when  he  opened  up  an  ancient 
Christian  graveyard  and  obtained  nearly  1,800  epitaphs 
from  the  third  century  and  later,  as  also  the  discovery 
of  Christian  catacombs  at  Hadrumetum  in  1906,  and 
since  then  the  opening  of  Nubian  cemeteries  (first  to 
sixth  centuries)  ;  but  those  at  Antinoe  and  Akhmim 
have  almost  proved  epoch-making.  The  catacombs  of 
Hadrumetum  and  Mar  Sousse  are  dated  by  Harnack  as 
earlier  than  Cyprian  (a.d.  238),  and  those  at  Tipasa  as 
perhaps  pre-Constantine ;  but  the  discoveries  of  Chris- 
tian antiquities  are  not  comparable  to  those  now  to  be 
mentioned.  At  Oxyrhynchus  also  every  Christian  relic 
from  the  Grseco-Roman  cemetery  had  perished,  unless 
a  little  doll-like  image  resembling  the  Madonna  and 
Child  be  an  exception.  All  of  this  shows  the  unique  im- 
portance of  the  Egyptian  cemeteries  to  be  mentioned. 

A  complete  series  of  tombs  were  excavated  by  M. 
Gayet  at  Antinoe  dating  from  the  time  of  the  founda- 
tion of  the  city  by  Hadrian,  a.d.  120-140,  up  to  the 
end  of  about  the  fifth  century;  and  fortunately  many  of 
these  graves  were  Christian.  Some  of  the  tombs  had 
brick  chapels  before  them,  eight  of  which  were  Chris- 
tian, resembling  in  their  symbolism  that  of  the  cata- 
combs, the  frescos  showing  the  Good  Shepherd,  the 
dove,  trees  of  paradise  cross-garlanded  with  flowers, 
etc.,  most  of  these  pictures  probably  dating  to  a  time 
anterior  to  the  reign  of  Constantine.     At  Akhmim  ex- 


404     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

cavations   were    conducted    at    various    times   by   M. 
Maspero,  director  of  antiquities  in  Egypt/^ 

The  classical  analysis  of  the  results  of  both  investi- 
gations was  made  by  Mr.  Philip  David  Scott-Moncrieff, 
Paganism  and  Christianity  in  Egypt  (1913),  and  we 
use  his  data  freely  in  the  following  discussion.  He 
shows  that  notwithstanding  the  strong  Hellenic  in- 
fluence, the  old  Egyptian  religion  held  its  own  in  Egypt 
until  Christianity  came.  Indeed,  the  religious  rites 
became  more  elaborate  in  late  Ptolemaic  time  and  the 
early  Christian  era,  the  most  salient  feature  being  the 
worship  of  the  gods  of  the  dead,  and  especially  of 
Osiris,  the  "god  of  life  in  death" — who  taught  the  hope 
of  a  new  life  springing  from  decay,  death  having  a 
divinely  revivifying  power.  Renunciation  of  the  world, 
leading  to  asceticism  and  celibacy,  was  not  peculiar  to 
Christians  but  was  common  to  Jews  and  heathen  in  the 
first  two  centuries  of  the  Christian  era.  As  the  old  sys- 
tems crumbled  before  Christianity,  the  ancient  gods  did 
not  disappear  but  lived  on  as  demons  who  could  be  con- 
trolled by  sorcery.  The  demotic  papyri  of  the  first  cen- 
tury are  full  of  pictures  of  the  other  world,  grim  and 
wild  as  those  of  Dante ;  but  "salvation"  for  the  soul  was 
obtained,  according  to  the  ancient  Egyptian  worshiper, 
not  by  wealth  or  gorgeous  funeral  ceremony,  but  by  the 
preponderance  of  the  deceased's  good  deeds  over  his  evil 
ones  when  weighed  in  the  scales  of  the  gods.  It  is  now 
proved  that  the  Egyptians  did  not  believe  in  a  resur- 
rection tho  they  did  believe  in  a  future  life,  and  much 
of  their  old  religious  symbolism  was  adjusted  to  the 

^  These  discoveries  were  reported  in  Annales  de  Musee  Gtiiniet,  tome 
XXX;  Bulletin  de  I'Institut  Egyptien;  Die  friihchristlichen  Alterthilmer 
von  Achmim-Panopolis.  The  last-named  publication  the  writer  has  not 
been  able  to  examine. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  405 

new  Christian  faith.  The  pictures  of  Isis  nursing 
Horus  became  a  forerunner  of  the  Madonna  and  Child, 
while  Haroeris,  especially  when  mounted  on  horseback, 
is  probably  the  ancestor  of  the  military  saints  so  dear 
to  Coptic  art.  The  early  Egyptian  Christians  were 
mummified  clear  up  to  the  Arab  conquest  and  used  the 
old  Egyptian  forms  connected  with  the  burial  rites  to 
enforce  their  new  doctrine.  As  the  poor  man  who  was 
an  unconverted  native  Egyptian  had  a  ticket  put  around 
his  neck  to  take  him  to  the  cemetery  by  boat  on  which 
was  written,  "May  his  spirit  serve  Osiris";  so  the 
native  Christians  wore  the  same  kind  of  a  tablet,  but 
instead  of  the  appeal  to  Osiris  the  monogram  for 
Christ  appeared — this  symbol  probably  being  employed 
as  a  seal  as  early  as  the  third  century,  tho  outside  of 
Egypt  it  has  not  been  found  earlier  than  the  fourth. 
One  of  these  burial  tickets  from  a  middle-class  grave 
reads:  "Taesai  lived  twenty-eight  years.  She  has 
gone  to  the  Shining  (Land)." 

Another,  almost  certainly  Christian,  speaks  of 
Satripes  Psenmagotos  having  "gone  to  rest"  at  Alex- 
andria {cf.  Rev.  14:  13). 

One  of  the  earliest  graves  found  at  Antinoe  was 
that  of  a  woman  named  Krispina,  whose  handsome 
oval  face,  with  the  hair  drest  somewhat  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  Antonine  empresses,  is  well  shown  by  the 
painted  portrait  in  the  coffin  of  the  deceased.  The 
left  hand  still  clasps  the  Egyptian  symbol  of  life, 
slightly  changed  to  a  shape  like  that  found  in  early 
Christian  designs.  The  additional  fact  that  only  floral 
decorations  are  represented  in  the  frescos  of  the  tomb, 
instead  of  the  typical  Egyptian  figures,  makes  it  the 
more  probable  that  this  woman  was  a  Christian.  Another 


4o6     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

woman  (early  third  century)  has  the  monogram  of 
Christ  stamped  on  the  seals  of  her  bandages,  and  the 
legend,  *'Be  at  peace,"  embroidered  on  her  shoes.  In 
another  grave  (fourth  century)  was  a  cross  flanked 
by  the  Alpha  and  Omega.  With  this  body  a  wooden 
symbol  of  life,  the  crux  ansata,  was  found,  together 
with  two  reed  baskets  and  a  large  jar.  Did  the  baskets 
and  jar  indicate  that  the  friends  of  this  Christian 
woman  had  yielded  to  the  old  Egyptian  custom  of  bury- 
ing food  offerings  with  the  dead,  or  were  they  only 
Eucharistic  vessels  connected  with  the  Christian  (or 
Gnostic)  sacraments?  The  latter  is  probably  correct. 
It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  the  hands  of  the  de- 
ceased were  grasping  a  small  cruciform  flower  well- 
known  as  a  desert  plant  which  ordinarily  lies  dead  and 
lifeless  but  on  contact  with  the  slightest  moisture 
blossoms  into  life.  This  was  entirely  analagous  to  the 
Egyptian  custom  of  placing  the  dead  body  on  a  bier 
covered  with  soil  and  planted  with  grain,  allowing  the 
mummy  to  remain  there  until  the  wheat  sprouted.  Both 
Egyptians  and  Christians  used  these  nature-symbols  of 
life  springing  from  death  to  express  their  faith  in  a 
future  world.  Near  this  rather  luxurious  grave  was' 
another  of  quite  different  character,  containing  the 
body  of  Sarapion,  a  Christian  anchorite,  clothed  in  a 
coarse  brown  robe  and  black  mantle,  with  a  cross  hung 
from  his  neck  and  iron  bands  about  his  waist,  ankles, 
and  arms. 

Some  of  the  bodies  found  had  been  dipt  in  a  bath 
of  bitumen,  certain  parts  being  afterward  covered  with 
gold  leaf.  Then  the  entire  body  was  bandaged  and  re- 
bandaged  in  spiral  or  interlaced  patterns,  over  which 
was  put  a  fresh  coat  of  bitumen  and  a  fresh  layer  of 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  407 

bandages,  the  face  being  finally  covered  with  a  fine 
cloth,  painted  and  gilded  with  a  plaster  mask  simulat- 
ing the  features  of  the  deceased.  This  was  the  elab- 
orate method  used  in  the  burial  of  the  Christian  woman 
mentioned  above.  A  slightly  later  method  of  burial  was 
not  to  envelop  the  body  in  bandages  or  dip  it  in 
bitumen,  but  simply  to  clothe  it  in  a  tunic  or  shawl  as 
Sarapion  the  ascetic  was  clothed.  Another  Christian 
body,  embalmed  according  to  the  earlier  method,  was 
found  by  Dr.  Naville  at  Deir  el-Bahari,  the  deceased 
holding  in  his  right  hand  a  cup  containing  a  red  liquid 
and  in  his  left  something  that  looks  like  a  handful  of 
wheat.  M.  Naville  believes  these  to  be  emblems  of  the 
Eucharist.  On  the  left  shoulder  is  the  swastika  (  ^  ) 
which  was  used  as  a  Christian  emblem  from  the  earliest 
times  not  only  in  the  Roman  catacombs  but  also  in 
Egypt.  Yet  the  lower  part  of  the  robe  covering  the 
deceased  contains  a  painting  of  two  jackal-headed  gods, 
probably  Anubis  and  Apuat,  adoring  the  sacred  bark 
of  Socharis.  This  seems  to  Scott-Moncrieff  as  almost 
incredible  unless  the  dead  man  belonged  to  some 
fantastic  Gnostic  sect  which  might  have  employed  this 
mixed  symbolism;  but  to  the  writer  it  seems  perfectly 
harmonious  with  the  practise  of  Christians  in  all  lands — 
that  of  using  the  native  symbolism  wherever  possible  to 
express  their  religious  ideas.  It  must  be  remembered 
also  that  heathen  relatives  or  heathen  artists  might 
have  been  permitted  some  discretionary  powers  in  the 
decoration  of  early  Christian  graves.  We  see  exactly 
this  same  use  of  heathen  mythological  motifs  in  the 
frescos  of  the  catacombs,  in  the  ancient  Christian 
sarcophagi  in  Italy  and  North  Africa,  and  in  the  grave- 
stones   from     Phrygia.       Several    ivory   objects    were 


4o8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVEklES 

found  in  the  Egyptian  Christian  graves  of  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries  which  probably  had  been  used  for 
counting  the  number  of  prayers  recited. 

The  Christian  tombs  were  decorated  with  vines 
painted  black,  resembling  those  of  Pharaonic  tombs, 
and  in  one  grave  was  found  a  little  terra-cotta  model 
of  several  figures  reclining  at  a  table  spread  as  if  for 
a  banquet.  This  evidently  represented  the  Christian 
Agape,  or  else  was  an  imitation  of  the  old  burial  cus- 
toms of  the  Egyptians,  or,  perhaps,  as  Scott-Moncrieff 
suggests,  it  may  have  had  some  connection  with  some 
fifth  century  rite  for  nourishing  the  soul,  which  may 
have  been  used  at  Antinoe.  Even  at  that  early  era  the 
Eucharistic  ceremony  must  have  been  thought  to  have 
some  connection  with  the  repose  of  the  dead,  for  this 
man  in  his  will  expresses  the  desire  that  "celebration 
be  made  of  the  holy  offerings  and  funerary  repasts  for 
the  repose  of  my  soul  before  Almighty  God."  When 
we  consider  the  condition  of  the  Church  even  in  the 
middle  ages,  we  must  not  discount  too  easily  the 
spirituality  of  the  Christians  of  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  because  of  their  use  of  semi-pagan  symbolism 
or  superstition. 

The  cemetery  at  Aklimlm  was  in  use  from  the  first 
to  the  eighth  century  of  our  era.  The  bodies  were 
mostly  laid  in  a  trench  without  coffins  but  drest  in  their 
richest  clothing.  The  method  of  preservation,  which 
was  not  by  the  use  of  bitumen  but  apparently  by  soak- 
ing in  natron,  was  wholly  successful,  and  has  brought 
to  us  both  clothes  and  bodies  in  fine  condition.  "It  is 
due  to  this  cause  that  we  possess  the  magnificent  series 
of  textiles  from  this  site  which  are  a  revelation  of  the 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  409 

skill  and  artistic  knowledge  for  which  the  Panopolites 
were  famous." 

Worked  upon  these  tapestries  of  the  second  and 
third  centuries  are  designs  of  nymphs  and  garlands, 
of  the  cross,  the  fish,  the  dove,  and  the  hare,  the 
last  three  being  "peculiarly  employed  in  early  Christian 
designs  as  furtive  symbols  of  the  faith";  while  another 
representation  of  two  doves  on  either  side  of  a  cup 
seems  to  be  even  more  certainly  of  Christian  origin, 
the  type  persisting  in  Christian  tapestry  for  centuries. 
In  later  eras  these  designs  were  still  employed;  but  the 
pagan  deities  which  were  used  from  the  first  to  the 
third  century  have  been  changed  into  military  saints 
and  representations  of  the  Savior.  Of  course,  the 
Egyptian  hieroglyphic  of  life  is  always  used  as  one  of 
the  principal  forms  of  decoration  to  represent  the  Chris- 
tian cross.  A  ring  from  Akhmim,  probably  of  the 
second  century,  has  incised  upon  it  an  anchor  and  two 
fishes,  while  a  model  anchor  comes  from  a  neighboring 
tomb.  From  one  grave  comes  a  little  figure  bandaged 
like  a  mummy  with  the  hands  folded  on  the  breast, 
which  may  have  represented  Osiris  or  may  have  been 
a  figure  of  our  Savior  represented  in  the  same  way  as 
the  dead  Osiris  was  pictured.  The  figure  of  Osiris 
found  in  another  Christian  tomb  may  have  been,  not  an 
amulet  as  usually  supposed,  but  a  symbol  expressing  to 
the  Christian  as  to  the  heathen  the  certainty  of  a  future 
life.  Scott-Moncrieff  well  says:  "Everything  seems 
to  point  to  the  fact  that  as  far  as  funerary  customs  are 
concerned  the  syncretism  of  the  age  is  evident  not  only 
in  early  Christian  art  but  also  in  early  Christian  beliefs. 
We  must  also  bear  in  mind  when  considering  these 
objects  the  notorious  activity  of  the  Gnostic  teachers 


4IO     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

during  the  second  and  third  centuries  and  the  con- 
servative character  of  the  Egyptians  themselves."  It 
should  be  remembered  that  Gnosticism  was  a  system  in 
which  all  religions  found  a  place;  its  object  was  to  ex- 
plain not  only  the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  faith  but 
those  of  the  pagan  religions  as  well. 

It  is  also  plain  that  ignorant  natives  who  had, 
previous  to  conversion,  believed  in  a  magical  resurrec- 
tion through  Osiris,  the  divine  man  who  had  risen  from 
the  dead  and  who  through  magical  rites  could  impart 
immortality,  might  without  careful  instructions  confuse 
this  with  Christ's  death  and  spiritual  resurrection.  Such 
men  would  also  naturally  use  ancient  customs  and  old 
artistic  designs,  not  remembering  their  original  mean- 
ing or  not  being  philosophically  curious;  only  knowing 
that  Christ,  like  Osiris,  came  to  life,  and  that  through 
Christ  immortality  could  be  gained.  Sometimes,  also, 
a  Christian  would  appropriate  a  pagan  tombstone  with 
all  its  mythical  ornamentation.^^  Very  constantly  the 
early  Christians  in  their  art  were  influenced  by  the 
forms  of  artistic  representation,  with  which  they  were 
familiar.  In  the  Roman  catacombs  the  decorations,  as 
we  have  seen,  were  freely  inspired  by  pagan  motifs, 
and  nymphs,  fawns,  Apollo,  and  Orpheus  appear  there 
commonly  in  the  earliest  period  of  Christian  art,  just 
as  similar  old  Egyptian  designs  are  used  at  Akhmim. 
This  does  not  mean  that  the  artists  were  unchristian, 
but  only  that  Christian  art  was  still  in  the  process  of 
birth. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  thing  coming  from 
the  Akhmin  cemetery  was  the  picture  of  the   Savior 

^  See  a  notable  illustration  in  Paganism  and  Christianity,  pp.  134-135, 
and  compare  De  Rossi,  Roma  Sotterranea  (Northcote  ed.),  p.  299. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  411 

(fourth  century)  worked  in  white  on  a  purple  back- 
ground showing  a  young  man  with  curly  hair,  beard- 
less, and  wearing  a  long  tunic  and  cloak.  In  his  left 
hand  he  holds  aloft  a  cross,  and  in  his  right  is  a  cross- 
headed  lance  with  which  he  spears  a  snake-like  croco- 
dile. Two  other  representations  woven  into  the  textile 
fabrics  seem  to  represent  the  Good  Shepherd  and  his 
flock. 

A  vast  number  of  Christian  grave  inscriptions  have 
been  found  in  Egypt,  the  oldest  of  all,  according  to 
De  Ricci,  being  the  following: 

"Ploution  the  blessed,  a  celibate,  having  borne  witness 
in  the  nineteenth  year  fell  asleep,  41  years  of  age,  and  went  to 
the  Land  of  the  Blessed  having  two  crowns;  likewise  Berekon, 
the  self-controlled,  having  borne  witness  fell  asleep,  (being)  36 
years  old ;  and  likewise  also  his  son  'Konon  a  disciple  of  the 
celibate."  ^^ 

Of  the  persons  mentioned  at  least  Ploution  must 
have  been  a  martyr,  as  the  "double  crown"  plainly  in- 
dicates. Several  Biblical  terms  occur  here.  It  is  just 
possible  that  the  term  "self-controlled"  (A.V.,  "tem- 
perate") applied  to  Berekon  may  indicate  that  he  was  a 
bishop  (see  Titus  1:8).  We  append  two  later  Chris- 
tian inscriptions  as  published  by  De  Ricci,  as  types  of 
ordinary  epitaphs: 

A.D.  597. — "There  fell  asleep  our  father  among  the  saints(?), 
Abba  Kuriakos  the  anchorite  (father?),  of  the  Abba  Nilos  the 
anchorite  in  the  month  of  Thoth   .    .    ."  ^^ 

A.D.  574. — "O  Lord  God  of  righteousness,  give  rest  to  the 
souls  of  thy  servants  Euthalios  and  Maria,  for  Euthalios  was  put 
to  rest  Phaph  12  .  .  .,  and  Maria  ...  in  the  reign  of  Jus- 
tinian." '^ 

^'  Seymour  de  Ricci,  "Inscriptions  grecques  d'figypte,"  in  Revue  con- 
servies  epigraphique,  N.  S.  I.,  153,  No.  10. 
"' O/).  n/..  No.  11. 
'"  Op.  cit.,  No.  14. 


412     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

What  has  imprest  us  most  in  this  study  has  been  the 
proved  interrelationship  between  pagan  Egyptian  and 
early  Christian  art  and  thought,  and  the  new  and  vivid 
proof  of  the  extraordinary  power  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity. The  Egyptian  religion,  as  we  now  see,  was 
able  to  sustain  itself  in  a  surprizing  way  against  the 
Asiatic  and  Syrian  cults — such  as  those  of  Adonis, 
Atys,  Cybele,  and  Mithra,  and  perhaps  of  Buddha 
also — and  remained  practically  unaffected,  except  for 
the  renaming  of  some  Egyptian  gods,  even  by  the  re- 
ligion of  their  Greek  rulers;  but  yielded  unreservedly 
to  the  new  ideals  and  the  new  theology  of  Christianity, 
tho  retaining  much  of  its  old  religious  symbolism  and 
some  of  its  external  forms  of  expression. 

5.  New  Light  from   Second  and  Third   Century 
Christian  Gravestones  in  Phrygia 

It  has  been  just  about  thirty-five  years  since  the 
ficole  Frangaise  d'Athenes  and  the  Asia  Minor  Ex- 
ploration Fund  of  England  began  their  work  in 
Phrygia,  which  was  the  district  most  thickly  populated 
by  Christians  in  the  early  centuries,  so  far  as  records 
exist.  Even  earlier  than  this  Hamilton  and  others  had 
made  important  observations  there,  but  detailed  and 
scientific  excavation  has  been  confined  to  the  period 
named. 

Sir  William  M.  Ramsay,  who  first  entered  Phrygia 
in  1880,  and  has  visited  Asia  Minor  almost  continuously 
year  after  year  from  that  time  up  to  the  present,  is 
the  main  authority  on  this  important  Christian  district, 
having  settled  many  geographical  and  topographical 
points,  located  some  of  the  celebrated  rivers  of  classic 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  413 

history,  and  above  all  gathered  vast  quantities  of  antiqui- 
ties and  utilized  them,  in  a  peculiarly  convincing  way,  to 
explain  the  New  Testament.^*^ 

The  story  of  Sir  William  Ramsay's  "call"  to  his 
providential  work  is  fascinating  beyond  description. 
He  was  a  young  married  man  of  twenty-five  with  only 
money  enough  to  pay  his  debts,  when  his  physician,  in 
his  last  year  at  Oxford  (1876),  ordered  him  to  travel 
for  his  health.  For  several  years  he  rambled  in  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  Italy  and  England,  paying  his  ex- 
penses by  teaching,  writing  for  the  Encyclopcedia 
Britannica,  and  other  such  methods.  Finally,  in  1880, 
through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Stuart  Poole,  keeper  of 
coins  at  the  British  Museum,  he  was  elected  to  a 
studentship  paying  him  $1,500  and  entitling  him  to 
travel  for  research  in  Greek  lands.  His  desire  was  to 
go  to  Athens;  but  instead  of  this,  when  he  landed  at 
Smyrna  he  was  induced  by  Sir  Charles  Wilson,  against 
the  judgment  of  all  his  friends,  to  start  work  in 
Phrygia.  When  he  entered  Phrygia  there  was  not  a 
trustworthy  map  of  the  country,  either  in  its  ancient 
or  modern  state.  He  undertook  to  supply  this  need 
and  also  to  trace  the  history  of  Roman  institutions  in 
Asia.  He  was  not  at  all  interested  in  the  bearings  of 
his  discoveries  upon  the  New  Testament  and  early 
Christianity. 

In  fact,  he  considered  the  time  lost  which  he  had  to 
spend  in  copying  Christian  inscriptions.     That  seemed 

^  In  saying  this  we  do  not  forget  the  work  of  Humann,  who  made  an 
important  journey  in  1882,  or  of  Korte  in  1899,  or  of  Prof.  J.  R.  S. 
Sterrett,  D.  G.  Hogarth,  J.  G.  C.  Anderson,  T.  Collender  and  others  who 
have  done  splendid  work,  on  the  foundations  laid  by  Ramsay;  nor  are 
we  underrating  the  previous  work  reported  1862-1872  by  G.  Perrot  and  E. 
Guillaume.  Explor.  de  la  Galatie,  and  later  by  G.  Radet,  M.  S.  Reinach, 
Le  Blant,  and  others. 


414     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

outside  his  province,  and  besides  he  was  a  "worshiper 
of  Wellhausen,"  and  accepted  without  question  the 
verdict  of  such  critics  that  the  Acts  was  an  untrust- 
worthy work  of  a  highly  wrought  imagination  pro- 
duced in  the  second  half  of  the  second  century.  He 
was  first  awakened  from  this  illusion  by  a  study  of 
Acts  14:  5,  which  stated  as  a  geographical  fact  that 
one  passed  from  the  frontier  of  Lycaonia  in  going  from 
Iconium  to  Lystra.  The  statement  seemed  absurd  and 
was  opposed  to  the  decision  of  the  most  authoritative 
modern  geographers,  and  seemed  to  be  contradicted  by 
ancient  writers;  but  as  Sir  William  studied  the  con- 
temporaneous inscriptions,  he  discovered  that  the 
author  of  the  Acts  knew  more  about  the  ancient 
geography  of  Phrygia  than  any  of  his  modern  critics. 
In  all  the  other  statements  of  this  book  he  also  found 
such  surprizing  accuracy  that  he  has  finally  been  able 
to  state  (1915)  as  a  scientific  conclusion  from  all  the 
data  now  in  our  possession  that  "Luke's  history  is  un- 
surpassed in  respect  to  its  trustworthiness."  ^^ 

We  will  now  look  for  a  moment  at  this  strange  dis- 
trict from  which  so  many  astounding  discoveries  have 
recently  come. 

Phrygia  was  the  name  of  a  very  large  country  in 
Asia  Minor  which  had  great  celebrity  in  ancient  times, 
not  simply  because  of  the  fame  of  King  Midas  and  of 
the  trade  routes  leading  through  this  land  to  Boghaz- 
Keui,  one  capital  of  the  Hittite  empire ;  but  also  because 
of  the  civilization  which  could  invent  money  and  guaran- 
tee its  value,  thus  "placing  traffic  on  a  new  footing  by 

®*  See  for  most  of  the  above  facts  and  for  an  entrancing  examination  of 
late  discoveries  in  Asia  Minor  The  Bearing  of  Recent  Discoveries  on  the 
Trustworthiness  of  the  New  Testament,  Sir  William  Ramsay  (2d.  ed.), 
1915. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  415 

rcgTilating  exchange."  The  immense  riches  of  this 
Laid  in  ancient  time  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  Lydia 
could  offer  Xerxes  as  a  bribe  2,000  talents  of  silver  and 
3,993,000  gold  darics.  In  Roman  time  Phrygia  was 
divided  into  two  provinces,  Asia  and  Galatia,  called 
Phrygia  Asiana  and  Phrygia  Galatica.  Galatic 
Phrygia  extended  along  the  front  of  the  Pisidian 
mountains  and  included,  according  to  popular  under- 
standing, the  cities  of  Iconium  and  Antioch.  One  in- 
scription has  long  been  known  mentioning  Phrygia  as 
a  part  of  the  province  of  Galatia  and  two  or  three 
others  written  in  poetic  phraseology  have  seemed  to 
mention  "Phrygian"  Antioch;  but  in  191 1  Sir  William 
Ramsay  found  another  which  conclusively  proved  to 
him  that  Luke's  geographical  terminology  (Acts  16:  6) 
could  have  been  made  "no  more  precise,  definite  and 
clear."  ^"  Racially  this  region  was  Phrygian,  but  ad- 
ministratively it  was  Galatic.  The  Phrygian  language 
kept  the  racial  feeling  alive,  as  was  confirmed  in  1910 
by  the  discovery  of  two  Phrygian  inscriptions  (a.d, 
150-250)  at  Iconium.  Asian  Phrygia  was  much 
larger ;  but  we  are  particularly  interested  in  the  former 
because  of  Paul's  travels  in  that  region. 

North  Galatia  in  the  first  century  was  one  of  the 
least  civilized  corners  of  Greece;  road-building  did  not 
begin  till  Vespasian;  travel  was  difficult;  the  customs 
were  barbarous ;  there  were  no  literary  interests  before 
the  fourth  century  after  Christ;  and  while  a  few  of  the 
people  could  speak  Greek,  Phrygian  was  the  tongue  gen- 
erally known,  and  the  laws  (e.g.,  of  inheritance)  were 
very  different  from  those  of  Greece  or  Sotith  Galatia.    It 

'^^  London  Expositor,  1911,  263;  compare  on  Luke's  grammatical  terms 
Ramsay's  Church  and  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  74-177. 


4i6     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

was  certainly  not  to  such  people  that  the  epistle  to  the 
Galatians  was  written/'^ 

Whether  we  accept  the  South  Galatian  theory  or 
not,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  either  through  the  work 
of  Paul — whom  the  inscriptions  prove  to  have  been 
thought  of  with  special  regard  in  this  region — or 
through  some  other  early  teacher,  almost  this  entire 
district  was  converted  to  Christianity  earlier  than  any 
other  of  corresponding  size  in  the  civilized  world.  By 
the  end  of  the  second  century  Christianity  was  so 
dominant  that  it  is  against  heretics,  not  against  pagans, 
that  the  Christians  were  contending,  while  by  the 
middle  of  the  third  century  the  population  was  so 
largely  Christian  that  local  persecution  seems  to  have 
completely  ceased;  and  when  in  a.d.  301-312  Diocletian 
sought  to  destroy  this  faith,  bringing  in  government 
troops  for  that  purpose,  he  was  compelled  practically 
to  annihilate  the  population  of  Eumenea  and  perhaps 
other  cities. 

That  the  heathen  had  tried  hard,  tho  unsuccessfully, 
to  check  by  other  means  than  persecution  the  onward 
sweep  of  Christianity,  is  shown  by  a  most  valuable  in- 
scription (a.d.  300)  found  in  1882  by  Sir  Wm.  Ramsay, 
which  tells  of  the  "Tekmorian  Guest-Friends,"  an  anti- 
Christian  secret  society  established  on  the  imperial 
estates  of  Pisidian  Antioch.  These  ''brothers  of  the 
sign"  spoke  of  the  pagan  devotees  as  "saints"  (ctyioi), 
and  doubtless  sought  to  rebuild  the  decayed  temples  and 

**  See  Ramsay,  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  pp.  131-194.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  we  accept  without  question  Ramsay's  South  Galatian  theory,  believing 
that  the  archeological  facts  compel  this,  notwithstanding  certain  verbal 
arguments  from  Biblical  texts  which  we  think  have  unduly  influenced  such 
scholars  as  Schmiedel,  Steinmann,  Moffatt,  etc.,  who  have  opposed  it.  For 
full  list  of  the  latter  see  Moffatt,  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  New 
Test.,  p.  90. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  417 

to  win  new  votaries  to  the  old  faith  in  their  homeland, 
which  had  become  wholly  Christian,  by  an  imitation 
of  the  languages  and  virtues  of  the  new  Way.*^^ 

One  reason  for  the  swiftness  with  which  this  dis- 
trict was  converted  may  have  been  found  in  the 
psychology  of  the  native  population,  who  seem  to  have 
had  a  strong  leaning  toward  religious  and  mystical  dis- 
cussion; but  the  prevalence  of  Jews,  who  had  never 
been  taught  rabbinically,  was  probably  the  chief  cause. 
Jews  for  several  centuries  had  been  granted  special 
privileges,  2,000  families  having  been  brought  by  the 
Roman  Emperor  for  political  purposes  from  Babylon 
into  Lydia  and  Phrygia  about  200  b.c.*'^  They  had 
populated  the  district  in  great  numbers  and  had  grown 
rich  and  very  influential.  They  maintained  much  of 
the  old  Jewish  character,  their  morality  being  doubtless 
much  higher  than  that  of  their  neighbors ;  yet  they  had 
lost  connection  with  their  country,  having  even  for- 
gotten their  language.  According  to  the  Talmud  they 
represented  the  remnants  of  the  Ten  Tribes;  certainly 
they  were  rather  foreign  in  their  sentiments,  having  a 
sympathy  with  non-Jewish  thought  and  manners  very 
unlike  their  Palestinian  brothers.  The  inscriptions 
prove  that  they  were  complying  with  many  pagan  cus- 
toms, and  Ramsay  believes  that  this  may  account  for 
the  fact  that  Timothy,  tho  having  a  Jewish  mother, 
had  never  been  circumcised.^® 

The  two  chief  pagan  deities  of  Phrygia  were  Cybele, 
the  Great  Mother,  symbolizing  the  reproductive  and 
nourishing  power  of  the  earth;  and  Sabazius,  the  son, 

**  Ramsay,  Studies  in  the  Hist,  and  Art  of  the  E.  Provinces  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  Chap.  ix. 

^  See  Ramsay,  Epistle  to  Galatians,  p.  74. 

"Acts  16:2;  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  III.,  869. 


4i8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

symbolizing  the  life  of  nature  dying  and  reviving  every 
year.  A  drama  representing  the  life  and  death  of  the 
latter  was  given  annually,  being  characterized  by  a 
frenzy  of  devotion,  unrestrained  enthusiasm,  and  wild 
orgiastic  dances.  As  late  as  the  second  century,  women 
of  the  highest  circles  in  Lydia  lived  as  courtezans 
before  the  goddess.  One  woman  records  this  service  in 
a  public  dedication.  To  want  to  detain  one's  wife  when 
it  was  her  turn  to  serve  in  the  temple  was  accounted  a 
sin.  Even  after  civilization  stopt  this  as  a  general 
custom,  a  class  of  priestesses  kept  it  up."  As  the  pig 
was  the  animal  used  in  religious  purification  by  the 
Phrygians  as  well  as  the  Greeks,  it  is  hardly  likely  that 
the  Jews  were  reached,  excepting  very  indirectly,  by 
the  native  Phrygian  worship ;  tho  perhaps  they,  like  the 
early  Christians,  were  influenced  somewhat  by  the 
universal  belief  in  magic  among  all  classes. 

The  Christian  remains  of  Phrygia  come  from  three 
districts,  one  in  the  center  of  the  country,  one  in  the 
north,  and  one  in  the  extreme  southeast  and  in  the 
adjoining  northern  part  of  Lycaonia.  A  long-con- 
tinued study  of  the  trade  routes  convinced  Ramsay  that 
all  three  districts,  altho  differing  widely  in  local  inscrip- 
tions, were  Christianized  through  Pauline  influence. 
One  line  of  influences  undoubtedly  starts  from 
Ephesus,  coming  up  the  Maeander  Valley  and  then  on 
to  Pisidian  Antioch ;  another  from  the  Pauline  churches 
of  Derbe,  Lystra,  Iconium,  and  Antioch  into  Lycaonia, 
etc.  The  inscriptions  which  center  in  Eumenea  are 
generally  very  orthodox,  those  which  center  in 
Lycaonia  and  the  adjoining  Phrygian  district  are  of  a 
mixed  nature ;  but  those  in  the  north  of  Phrygia,  which 

*'  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  I.,  95. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  419 

seem  connected  with  the  Christianity  of  the  Troad 
{cf.  2  Cor.  2:  12),  spreading  up  through  Mysia  and 
Bithynia,  are  akin  to  the  Montanist  heretical  type.  We 
shall  not  discriminate  constantly  between  these  districts, 
but  shall  use  the  inscriptions  chiefly  for  the  sake  of 
throwing  light  upon  the  general  condition  of  the  earliest 
followers  of  the  "Way"  and  illustrating  their  re- 
ligious faith.^^ 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  in  examining  these 
Christian  epitaphs  is  the  fact  that,  except  in  slight 
variations,  they  resemble  the  pagan  epitaphs.  This 
was  intentional.  However  powerful  the  Christians 
grew,  they  were  always  in  danger  of  governmental  in- 
terference and  felt  it  prudent  to  make  their  declarations 
of  Christianity  in  a  way  so  inconspicuous  as  not  to 
rouse  the  attention  of  Roman  officials.  Most  Chris- 
tians did  not  covet  martyrdom,  and  the  greatest  Chris- 
tian teachers  discouraged  public  statements  which 
would  bring  persecution.  It  was  also  easier  to  follow 
customary  formulas  than  to  invent  new  ones,  so  that 
among  some  of  the  less  intelligent  Christians  distinctly 
pagan  abbreviations — which  very  likely  were  not  fully 
understood — were  occasionally  cut  upon  the  grave- 
stones. 

A  very  curious  epitaph  from  a  Parthian  of  high 

'^The  text  used,  unless  otherwise  stated,  is  that  given  in  the  Cities  and 
Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  1895,  1897,  excepting  in  a  very  few  instances  where 
later  examination  has  given  a  dififerent  reading;  Sir  William's  translations 
have  been  used  when  available.  We  once  more  wish  to  express  our  con- 
stant obligation  in  almost  every  paragraph  of  this  discussion,  to  the  various 
learned  works  of  this  distinguished  explorer.  We  have  also  consulted  the 
later  texts  published  in  the  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies  by  Hasluck,  Ander- 
son, etc.,  XXIIL,  20#.,  75#.;  XXV.,  81#.;  XXVII.,  61#.;  XXVIIL,  180#.; 
XXXIII.,  97#.;  XXIV.,  20#.  It  may  be  worth  while  to  add  that  a  sample 
collection  of  all  known  Phrygian  inscriptions  was  given  by  Ramsay  in  1905, 
in  the  eighth  volume  of  Jahreshericht  des  osterreichisck-archdologischen 
Instituts,  pp.  79-110;  but  many  have  come  to  light  since. 


420    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

rank,  dating  probably  from  the  fourth  century,  either 
marks  the  grave  of  a  Christian  who  only  slightly 
modified  a  very  usual  heathen  formula  or  of  a  heathen 
who,  during  the  anti-Christian  revival,  imitated  in  a 
rather  imperfect  way  the  moral  epitaphs  used  by  his 
opponents : 

"I  was  not ;  I  came  to  be ;  I  shall  not  be" ; 

"This  life  does  not  concern  me.     Farewell,  ye  passers-by."  ^^ 

On  the  grave  of  another  man  who  was  certainly  a 
Christian  is  carved  the  rather  hopeless  words: 

"Do  not  weep  .    .    .   There  is  one  end  that  comes  to  all." 

When  one  died  who  was,  perhaps,  a  Christian  official 
of  the  third  century,  those  who  had  the  responsibility 
of  providing  for  him  a  proper  tribute  used  very 
classical  terminology  but  failed  to  get  in  much  of  the 
Christian  joy: 

"Here  lies  Aurelios  Trophimos  .  .  .  Here  the  doom  of 
death  overtook  me,  the  public  teacher  of  wisdom.  I  dwell  in  the 
house  of  Pluto  .  .  .  The  light  of  the  moon  does  not  shine  from 
heaven  but  there  is  dark  night.  ...  I  went  to  the  house  of 
Hades,  the  lightless  land,  I  who  was  once  called  teacher  of  sacred 
wisdom."  ""^ 

But  while  occasionally  the  old  fashions  in  grave 
inscriptions  interfere  with  the  expressions  of  the  new 
view  of  the  future  life  introduced  with  Christianity, 
ordinarily  certain  Christian  expressions  or  symbols 
clearly  differentiate  the  Christian  from  the  pagan 
grave;  altho  even  the  early  symbols  were  chosen  from 
those  used  by  the  pagans  or  were  made  to  resemble 

•^  Op.  cit,  No.  134. 

'"  Ramsay,  Studies  in  the  Hist,  and  Art  of  the  E.  Provinces  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  1906,  pp.  138,  142. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  421 

such.  The  dove  and  fish  are  seldom  used  in  Phrygia, 
but  as  Sir  Wilham  Ramsay  points  out,  the  horse,  the 
ship,  anchor,  pahn,  etc.,  were  used,  as  also  certain  ana- 
grams which  presumably  had  a  Christian  significance, 
altho  it  must  be  confest,  most  of  these  differed  but 
slightly  from  those  favored  by  their  heathen  neighbors. 
Quite  often  it  is  only  the  names  which  have  a  Chris- 
tian meaning,  thus  indicating  the  Christian  nature 
of  the  inscription ;  or  perhaps  names  given  to  the  Chris- 
tians in  scorn  by  their  opponents,  such  as  Credula, 
Alogius,  Injuriosus,  Calumneosos,  Malus,  Pecus, 
Fugitivus,  etc.  Biblical  names  excepting  Maria  are 
rare  in  Phrygia.  Even  when  the  term  "deacon"  or 
''bishop"  appears,  it  usually  marks  the  grave  of  some 
official  of  a  pagan  temple.  The  Christians  here  seem- 
ingly did  not  publicly  use  the  title  "bishop"  until  a 
later  era.  One  distinguishing  mark,  however,  of  the 
Christian  epitaph  is  the  "deeper  thought"  and  more 
"human  feeling"  displayed.  Also  when  there  is  more 
than  one  body  permitted  in  the  grave  it  is  almost  cer- 
tainly Christian.  The  heathen  (and  perhaps  many 
Christians,  too)  believed  that  the  preservation  of  the 
grave  had  something  to  do  with  future  happiness,  arid 
so  invoked  penalties  upon  all  violators  of  its  sanctity; 
but  the  Christian  not  only  often  shared  his  grave  with 
relatives,  but  in  a  surprizing  number  of  cases  with 
friend  or  stranger.  One  beautiful  Christian  inscrip- 
tion of  the  third  century  (about  a.d.  270)  shows  the 
good  political  standing  of  the  Christians  at  that  time: 

"Aur.  Menophilos,  Jr.,  the  (son)  of  Asklepiades,  senator,  con- 
structed the  enclosure  before  you  for  himself  and  his  son  Apil- 
lonius  and  his  wife  Meltine  and  his  grandsons  Menophilos  and 
Asklepiades  and  for  whomsoever  he  himself  wishes   .    .    .    But  if 


422     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

any  one  else  shall  attempt  to  place  (herein)  another  it  shall  be 
to  him  according  to  Jesus  Christ."  " 

One  of  the  formulas  quite  common  Is  shown  in  the 
following  gravestone  of  the  fourth  century: 

"Eutyches  son  of  Eutyches,  to  his  wife  Tatia  and  her  father 
in  remembrance,  being  Christians,"  etc. 

A  still  more  common  formula  which  occurs  very 
often  scratched  upon  the  corner  of  the  tombstone: 

"Thou  shalt  not  wrong  God." 

Other  Christian  expressions  are  "God  help";  "Lord 
help";  "Servant  of  God";  "Pardon  our  sins";  "Sleep"; 
"Rest,"  etc.  The  word  which  indicates  the  grave  as 
a  "resting-place" /KoipiTiTriQiov)  is  "only  found  in  Chris- 
tian inscriptions"  (Hogarth).  One  such  inscription 
reads : 

"Aurelius  Asclepiades  made  this  resting-place.  Peace  to  all 
the  brotherhood." 

A  most  common  formula  in  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries  is  this:; 

"Aurelius  Zoticus,  son  of  Marcion,  to  his  own  parents  Marcion 
and  Appe ;  ...  in  remembrance  during  his  lifetime,  Chreistians 
to  Chreistians." 

The  variation  in  spelling  the  word  Christian  is  a 
certain  proof  of  early  date.  Dating  from  the  year 
A.D.  333  comes  the  following: 

"Chreistians  to  a  Chreistian" 
"Aurelia  Ammia  with  their  son-in-law   .    .    .  and  grandchil- 
dren ...   to  her  husband  constructed  this  tomb."  " 

"  Greek  text  in  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  No.  371. 

'^  The  above  inscriptions  are  given  by  Hogarth,  Authority  and  Archae- 
ology, p.  386. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  423 

From  the  century  previous  occur  similar  epitaphs 
full  of  Bible  names: 

"loulios,  son  of  Onesimus  to  ...  A  Chreistian  to  a  Chreis- 
tian." 

"Auxanousa  .    .    .  and  his  son  Trophimos   .    .    .   Chreistians 
to  a  Chreistian." 

The  title  Christian  was  originally  a  taunt  meaning 
"Messiah-ites,"  and  very  many  of  the  early  Fathers 
preferred,  instead  of  writing  "Christus,"  to  write 
"Chrestus"  (the  "good"  one).  This  invariably  marks 
a  pre-Constantine  grave.  On  one  third  century  stone 
an  open  book  is  pictured,  evidently  the  Bible.  Many 
tombstones  are  made  in  the  form  of  altars  or  in  some 
districts  in  the  form  of  doors,  with  the  knockers  in 
place  and  the  common  utensils  of  .life  carved  on  the 
lintels — as  if  all  the  Christian  needed  to  do  was  to 
pause  and  knock  at  the  door  of  the  grave  and  then 
pass  through  to  eternal  life.  On  the  door-posts  of  one 
door  is  written  the  beautiful  sentiment: 

"They  live  having  escaped  great  danger." 

On  another  Lycaonian  stele,  placed  above  the  grave  of 
Dikios,  "a  measurer  of  wheat,"  is  written: 

"The  sarcophagus  belongs  to  him  who  knocks  where  the  door 
stands  before  him." 

Many  inscriptions  quote  or  paraphrase  Scripture. 
The  texts  used  in  four  typical  grave  inscriptions  were: 
Isa.  i:  16-18;  25:6;  60:  1-3;  61:  I,  .10;  Matt.  6:  13; 
24:  15;  Luke  15:  4;  Phil,  i:  21." 

One  of  the  most  pathetic  of  all  these  third  century 

"  Op.  cit.,  Nos.  674-678. 


424    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

gravestones  is  that  in  which  Aurehus  Alexander,  son 
of  Mark,  puts  up  a  memorial  to  his  martyred  family: 

"To  my  sweetest  children  honored  by  God  in  the  peace  of  God 
(here  follow  five  names)  who  on  one  single  occasion  were  blessed 
with  the  lot  of  life  ,  .  .  and  whatsoever  alien  shall  injure  this 
tomb  may  they  have  children  who  die  young." 

This,  as  Ramsay  points  out,  certainly  marks  the 
grave  of  five  martyrs,  for  there  can  be  no  slightest 
probability  that  five  children  would  be  killed  even  by 
the  plague  in  one  day.  Sir  William  dates  this  epitaph 
to  the  persecution  of  Decius  or  Gallienus,  a.d.  249-260. 
It  was  quite  customary  with  the  Christians,  as  with  the 
pagans,  to  call  down  an  imprecation  upon  any  one  who 
would  meddle  with  the  tomb.  The  customary  formula 
was,  "He  shall  have  to  reckon  with  Christ";  but  the 
father  who  had  lost  five  children  in  one  day  puts  on 
record  a  prayer  which,  under  the  circiimstances,  would 
affect  the  reader  even  more  powerfully. 

Another  heroic  inscription  of  a  little  later  date, 
already  quoted,  describes  the  attitude  of  an  of^cer  in  the 
Lycaonian  army — Marcus  Jtilius — who  when  Maxi- 
minus  issued  an  order  compelling  Christians  to  sacrifice, 
wrote  to  his  general,  Diogenes,  'T  resigned  my  military 
commission,  holding  fast  to  the  Christian  faith."  ^* 

Mystical  inscriptions,  the  meaning  of  which  is 
often  obscure  to  us,  are  not  uncommon.  Marcus 
Aurelius  of  Hierapolis,  about  a.d.  200,  puts  his  will  on 
his  tombstone,  leaving  a  large  share  of  his  property  in 
the  care  of  the  presiding  officers  of  the  "purple- 
dippers"  (or  "those  bathed  in  purple"),  a  part  of  the 
estate,  under  certain  conditions,  to  go  permanently  to 
this  "Guild  of  the  Thrcininata."    He  also  leaves  money 

"  Marucchi,  Christian  Epigraphy,  Xo.  379. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  425 

for  candles  to  be  used  on  "the  wonted  day."  This 
enigmatical  text  seems  to  most  scholars  clearly  Chris- 
tian. That  it  is  either  Jewish  or  Christian  is  pretty 
certain  from  a  second  inscription,  which  also  mentions 
"the  most  reverend  assembly  of  the  purple-dippers" 
(porphyrabaphoi) ,  where  a  certain  further  amount  is 
left  to  be  used  "on  the  feast  of  Pentecost."  "  Scholars 
generally  agree  that  this  "Ekklesia  of  Purple-Dippers" 
was  a  Christian  burial  club,  the  name  being  chosen  be- 
cause dyeing  was  one  of  the  leading  industries  at 
Hierapolis  and  a  "guild  of  dyers"  was  well  known. 
Mr.  Hogarth  ^^  accepts  the  Christian  reference  and 
says  "the  passers-by  would  read  it  as  'purple-dippers,' 
'dyers  in  purple';  but  the  Christians  would  know  that 
it  meant  'those  who  were  washed  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb.'" 

The  most  celebrated  of  all  the  Phrygian  inscrip- 
tions is  the  mystical  and  allegorical  poem  found  by  Sir 
William  Ramsay  on  the  tombstone  of  a  second  century 
Christian  named  Avircius  or  Abercius,  who  places  his 
confession  of  faith — evidently  directed  against  the 
heresy  of  Montanus — in  the  most  prominent  way 
possible  upon  his  tomb.  There  are  in  existence  so  few 
long  inscriptions  from  the  second  century  that  his  has 
an  unequalled  value.     We  give  Hogarth's  translation: 

"I,  the  citizen  of  a  notable  city,  have  made  this  tomb  in  my 
lifetime  that  I  may  have  openly  a  resting-place  for  my  body. 
Avircius  by  name,  I  am  a  disciple  of  the  pure  shepherd,  who 
feedeth  flocks  of  sheep  on  mountains  and  plains,  who  hath  great 
eyes  looking  on  all  sides.  For  he  taught  me  faithful  writings, 
and  he  sent  me  to  Rome  to  behold  the  king,  and  to  see  the  golden- 

"The  Greek  text  is  given  in  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  I.,  118; 
II.,  525,  545. 

'"Authority  and  Archcvology,  p.  383. 


426     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

robed,  golden-slippered  queen,  and  there  I  saw  a  people  bearing 
the  splendid  seal.  And  I  saw  the  plain  of  Syria,  and  all  its  cities, 
even  Nisibis,  having  crossed  the  Euphrates.  And  everywhere  I 
had  fellow  worshipers.  With  Paul  as  my  companion  I  followed, 
and  everywhere  Faith  led  the  way,  and  everywhere  set  before 
me  fish  from  the  fountain,  mighty  and  stainless,  whom  a  pure 
Virgin  grasped.  At  all  times  Faith  gave  this  to  friends  to  eat, 
having  good  wine,  giving  the  mixed  cup  with  bread,"  etc. 

This  epitaph  can  hardly  be  dated  later  than  a.d.  192, 
and  as  at  the  end  of  the  inscription  Avircius  says  he 
was  in  his  seventy-second  year,  this  would  date  his 
birth  A.D.  120,  only  some  fifteen  years  after  the  tradi- 
tional death  year  of  John  the  Apostle.  Another  in- 
scription A.D.  216  quotes  a  portion  of  this  epitaph. 
Christ  is  evidently  the  Good  Shepherd  whose  "great 
eyes"  represent  symbolically  his  prudent  care.  Avircius 
had  taught  his  catechumens,  he  says,  from  true  and 
sacred  books,  having  been  brought  up  on  the  writings 
of  the  Apostle  Paul,  who  in  the  spirit  was  with  him  in 
all  his  journeys.  The  "fish"  was  the  common  symbol 
for  Christ,  born  of  a  "pure  Virgin,"  while  the  "mixed 
cup  with  bread"  seems  a  clear  reference  to  the  Holy 
Communion.  To  allow  that  the  king's  daughter,  the 
queen  whom  he  saw  at  Rome,  represents  the  Christian 
Church  seems  a  little  less  certain,  tho  scholars  gen- 
erally accept  it;  but  it  is  absolutely  clear  that  Avircius 
found  Christians  everywhere  he  went  in  the  second  cen- 
tury from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Tiber. 

In  a  number  of  the  inscriptions  which  we  have 
quoted,  burial  guilds  have  been  mentioned  and  charit- 
able bequests.  So  the  will  of  Aristeas,  in  central 
Phrygia,  leaves  a  bequest  to  the  "Society  of  Neighbors" 
in  order  that  every  year  they  may  "cause  the  grave  of 
my  wife  Aurelia  to  bloom  with  roses."    The  burial  club 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  427 

was  almost  certainly  the  first  official  society  established 
under  the  auspices  of  Christianity.  It  was  common 
among  the  pagans  and  the  Jews,  tho  not  conducted 
probably  on  the  same  wide  lines  of  charity  and  brother- 
hood as  among  the  early  Christians.  It  was  the  easiest 
way  to  get  official  recognition,  as  the  government  re- 
spected tombs  and  burial  societies  and  allowed  such 
clubs  legal  privileges.  So  far  as  charity  is  concerned 
mention  of  it  occurs  in  many  inscriptions  as,  e.g.,  in 
one  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  where  on  a  tombstone 
the  duties  of  a  presbyter  are  declared  to  include  "the 
help  of  widows,  orphans,  strangers  (?)  and  poor."  The 
name  of  the  presbyter  is  mentioned  who  has  "charge 
of  the  sacred  expenditure  (?)  in  remembrance."  "  The 
inscriptions  speak  of  Christian  orphanages  for  found- 
lings and  of  the  church  funds  which  were  used  for  the 
liberation  of  slaves  and  for  the  care  of  aged  people, 
prisoners,  and  exposed  infants.  Throwing  the  infant 
out  to  die  or  to  be  picked  up  by  strangers  was  "a  horri- 
bly common  practise  in  Asia  Minor."  It  was  also  com- 
mon for  pagan  families  to  bring  up  foundlings  in  order 
to  sell  them  for  immoral  purposes;  so  that  this  branch 
of  charitable  work  on  the  part  of  Christians  dififer- 
entiated  them  very  clearly  in  early  times  from  their 
heathen  neighbors;  altho  later,  at  the  time  of  the  anti- 
Christian  revival,  pagans  were  accustomed  to  imitate 
these  acts  of  charity,  as  they  were  also  accustomed  to 
quote  on  their  tombstones  Christian  phrases. 

Very  impressive  is  a  gravestone  found  near  Iconium 
in  1905,  dating  from  about  a.d.  350: 

"Koulas  to  Solon,  a  stranger,  in  rememlDrance." 
"  Expositor,  XU.,  444. 


428     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Even  now  it  is  not  too  common  for  Christians  to 
put  up  tombstones  in  memory  of  dead  strangers.  One 
bishop  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century  is  called 
in  his  g-rave  memorial,  "Friend  to  all  men";  which  is 
even  a  better  tribute  than  that  on  another  bishop's 
tomb  who  is  called  "the  very  pure  and  sweet-voiced" ; 
while  an  inscription  on  the  tombstone  of  a  priest 
emphasizes  another  beautiful  quality: 

"Here  lies  a  man,  priest  of  the  great  God,  who  on  account  of 
gentleness  gained  heavenly  glory." 

The  honor  given  to  women  in  Phrygia  is  marked. 
On  a  Jewish  tombstone,  a.d.  60-80,  Nicias  Lucius  and 
his  wife  are  both  called  archons  or  official  officers  in 
the  synagog  (aQXiovvdyodyoq) .  Even  if  this  were 
merely  an  honorable  title  so  far  as  the  wife  is  con- 
cerned, it  still  indicates  the  rank  of  women  in  the  com- 
munity.'^^ This  Jew  had  both  a  Greek  and  a  Roman 
name,  tho  he  was  not  a  Roman  citizen;  he  also  acted 
as  priest  for  the  emperor  cult,  having  to  do  especially 
with  rites  in  honor  of  Poppsea,  the  wife  of  Nero. 
Ramsay  has  shown  ^^  that  the  Jews  before  a.d.  70  con- 
stituted a  self-administrating  community,  "the  law  of 
the  Jews,"  being,  in  fact,  specifically  mentioned  on  one 
tombstone.  While  it  is  an  old  tradition,  probably  un- 
true, that  the  Roman  government  did  not  discriminate 
between  the  Jews  and  Christians  in  the  first  century, 
yet  it  is  often  difficult  to  determine  whether  an  inscrip- 
tion is  Jewish  or  Christian  unless  the  seven-branched 
candlestick  or  some  other  distinctively  Jewish  symbol 
is  engraved  on  the  stone. 

'*  So  in  A.D.  200,  we  hear  of  a  woman  "prophetess"  from  the  inscrip- 
tions, Ramsay,  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  I.,  118. 
"  Op.  cit.,  Chap.  XVI. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  •  429 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  many  soldiers  and 
senators  were  Christians  in  Phrygia  in  the  second  and 
third  century.  It  is  far  more  interesting  to  discover 
that  the  early  Church  favored  education,  and  that  it 
was  not  until  after  the  annihilation  of  the  most  pros- 
perous part  of  the  Church  that  the  Christians  began  to 
underrate  the  value  of  learning.^'*  It  is  supremely  inter- 
esting to  note  that  in  almost  all  these  pre-Constantine 
Christian  inscriptions,  which  outrank  in  number  those 
found  anywhere  in  the  world — unless  we  except  the 
catacombs  of  Rome, — we  find  not  only  a  firm  faith  in 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  primitive  Christianity, 
and  a  faithful  spirit,  which  did  not  slacken  even  in  the 
face  of  martyrdom,  but  also  a  love  for  the  stranger 
and  outcast  which  is  peculiarly  Christlike. 

In  addition  to  the  foundation  work  which  we  have 
described  as  done  by  Sir  William  Ramsay  in  western 
Asia  Minor,  a  great  deal  of  supplemental  work  has 
been  accomplished  there  and  in  other  sections.  Prof. 
J.  R.  Sterrett,  in  1883-84,  made  an  independent  journey, 
bringing  back  390  inscriptions;  and  in  1885  conducted 
the  Wolf  expedition  which  obtained  625  texts.  Very 
many  more  expeditions  have  been  made,  such  as  that 
of  Cornell  in  1907,  conducted  by  A.  J.  Olmstead;  the 
Princeton  expedition,  and  the  later  expeditions  at 
Cyzicus  by  several  scholars,  all  of  which  have  yielded 
an  enormous  treasure  of  inscriptions — tho  all  of  these 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  carried  away,  as  proved  by 
Ramsay's  most  successful  journeys  in  1910  and  1911.^^ 

"^Ibid.,  IL,  509. 

**  Ramsay  published  a  complete  collection  of  all  known  Phrygian  in- 
scriptions in  1905  in  Jahresbericlit  des  dsterreichisch-arch'dologischen  In- 
stituts,  which  has  since  been  greatly  supplemented.  See,  e.g.,  Journal  of 
Hellenic  Studies,  Vol.  31,  etc. 


430     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

As  early  as  1856-59  His  Majesty's  government  had 
sent  an  expedition  into  S.  Asia  Minor,  examining 
ancient  cities  and  obtaining  a  goodly  number  of  Greek 
sepulchral  inscriptions  from  Halicarnassus,  Cnidus,  etc. ; 
and  these  results  were  much  enlarged  by  the  work  of 
C.  Lanckoronski,  F.  von  Luschan,  K.  Humann,  and 
others  (1888- 1890),  altho  nothing  for  our  present  dis- 
cussion was  discovered  more  important  than  Sir  Charles 
Newton's  early  find  at  Cnidus  of  a  collection  of  leaden 
imprecatory  tablets  from  the  temple  of  Demeter  which 
are  remarkably  like  some  later  Christian  imprecations. 
In  East  Asia  Minor,  G.  Perrot  and  E.  Guillaume,  whom 
we  have  previously  mentioned,  did  a  magnificent  piece 
of  work  (1862- 1 872),  while  the  art  of  this  district  has 
been  treated  in  a  particularly  thorough  way  by  Pro- 
fessor Strzygowski,  followed  by  Miss  Margaret 
Ramsay — a  strong  argument  being  made  to  prove  that 
the  early  art  of  Asia  Minor  exercized  a  strong  influence 
on  the  development  of  Roman  and  Byzantine  Christian 
art.^^  D.  G.  Hogarth  and  other  later  investigators 
have  added  considerably  to  the  knowledge  of  this  sec- 
tion, while  from  Northern  Asia  Minor  other  scholars 
like  J.  C.  Anderson  and  F.  Cumont  have  done  splendid 
work.    Some  of  these  results  will  be  utilized  later. 

There  is,  however,  one  city,  Cyzicus,  where  the  ex- 
plorations have  been  so  extensive  that  it  must  receive 
special  mention.  Cyzicus  was  a  town  so  ancient  that 
its  founding  is  placed  by  tradition  only  thirty-four 
years  after  Ilium,  its  king  being  the  central  figure  in 
the  famous  expedition  of  the  Argonauts.  In  1902  F. 
W.  Hasluck  assisted  Mr.  Henderson  in  making  a  sur- 

^ Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  XXIV,  206#.;  Ramsay,  Studies  in  the 
History  and  Art  of  the  Eastern  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  431 

vey  of  the  site  under  the  auspices  of  the  British  School 
of  Archaeology,  and  afterward  each  year  up  to  1906 
he  conducted  excavations  there,  giving  important 
epigraphic  and  numismatic  results,  besides  determining 
positively  many  of  the  ancient  roads  and  giving  us  the 
first  and  only  reliable  map  of  the  district.  He  found 
the  Roman  walls  of  the  city  still  standing,  and  was  able 
to  give  a  good  description  of  the  style  of  buildings  from 
the  first  century  to  Hadrian's  time.  The  substructure 
(252  X  150  feet)  and  **a  few  gaunt  piers"  of  Hadrian's 
temple  are  still  standing,  tho  the  great  theater  re- 
mained but  a  shapeless  remnant  overgrown  with  brush- 
wood. A  necropolis  was  found  in  the  east  end  of  the 
ancient  ruins,  and  nearby  a  church  where  insanity 
and  all  kinds  of  diseases  were  supposed  to  be  miracu- 
lously cured — a  direct  perpetuation  of  the  traditions  of 
the  old  Cybele  worship. 

The  custom  was  to  remain  at  least  forty  days,  sleep- 
ing each  night  in  the  temple,  and  during  this  time  the 
temple  physicians  treated  the  disease;  so  medical 
science  developed.  Investigators  tell  us  that  by  the 
fifth  Christian  century  the  medical  profession  had  prac- 
tically eliminated  superstition  from  their  theory  and 
practise  and  "stood  on  the  solid  ground  of  scientific 
observation  and  experiment."  ^^  We  shall  see  later, 
however,  that  at  least  among  the  common  people  these 
superstitions  were  long-lived. 

The  language  of  Cyzicus  was  a  mixture  of  Lydian 
and  Phrygian.  The  local  religious  cult  was  transformed 
into  a  gorgeous  emperor  worship,  the  ruling  emperor  as 
early  as  a.d.  124  being  styled  "the  New  Son,"  "Olym- 
pian Saviour,"  etc.,  while  the  female  members  of  his 

^  Botsford  and  Sihler,  Hellenic  C ivili::ation ,  1915. 


432     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

family  were  worshiped  as  "The  New  Aphrodite,"  etc.^* 
The  mass  of  inscriptions  found  here,  while  exceedingly 
interesting,  are  valuable  chiefly  for  their  complete  cor- 
roboration of  Sir  William  Ramsay's  previous  con- 
clusions concerning  the  religion  and  customs  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  therefore  need  not  be  quoted. 

6.  New  Light  from  the  Second,  Third  and  Fourth 
Century  Monuments  at  Salona,  Dalmatia 

For  an  entire  century  magnificent  imperial  con- 
structions and  vast  ruins  from  the  early  Christian  ceme- 
teries at  Salona  have  been  the  wonder  of  all  travelers 
in  Dalmatia.  This  city  under  the  Roman  emperors 
was  one  of  the  chief  ports  of  the  Adriatic,  and  the  town 
of  Spalato,  situated  near  its  site,  is  still  the  largest  city 
of  the  district. 

In  1818  the  Emperor  Francis  I  visited  the  ruins  of 
Salona,  and  to  his  royal  interest  we  owe  the  systemat- 
ization  of  the  explorations  and  the  foundation  of  the 
archeological  museum.  The  first  excavations  were  con- 
ducted by  Dr.  C.  Lanza,  1821-1827,  and  were  con- 
tinued by  Dr.  F.  Carrara,  1842- 1850,  bringing  to  light 
the  circumference  of  the  city  walls  and  some  important 
buildings  like  the  amphitheater,  theater,  several  splendid 
gates,  an  old  Christian  baptistry,  and  several  ceme- 
teries. These  excavations  were  continued  intermit- 
tently till  1877,  when  a  subsidy  was  granted  to  this 
work  by  the  Austrian  government,  since  which  time 
annual  excavations  have  been  made.  In  1870  all  the 
collections  previously  gathered  were  housed  in  the 
gymnasium  near  the  Silver  Gate.     After  the  accommo- 

**  See  a  fascinating  account  of  the  entire  history  of  this  city,  Cysicus 
in  Mysia,  By  F.  W.  Hasluck,  1910. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  433 

dations  provided  here  were  overcrowded,  additional  sec- 
tions w^ere  added,  and  finally  a  new  museum  of  mag- 
nificent proportions  was  projected  by  the  state  in  1894. 

Mons.  Fr.  Bulic  has  been  the  director  of  excavations 
since  1884,  and  it  is  from  his  reports  chiefly  that  we 
gather  the  following  information.  One  of  the  most 
spectacular  discoveries  has  been  in  connection  with 
Diocletian's  palace.  This  wonderful  building  covers 
nearly  ten  acres,  resembling  in  outline  a  Roman  camp, 
tho  its  architecture  is  distinctly  non-Roman.  Portions 
of  the  old  arched  aqueduct  still  stand,  by  means  of  which 
Diocletian  brought  good  water  to  the  palace  from  moun- 
tain springs  five  and  a  half  miles  away. 

Diocletian  retired  here  to  private  life  near  his  birth- 
place, about  A.D.  300,  and  at  once  began  the  building  of 
this  palace,  the  workmen  evidently  being  imported  from 
Greece,  Syria  or  Asia  Minor.  In  five  years  it  was  so 
nearly  completed  that  he  brought  his  household  gods 
and  lived  here  the  remainder  of  his  life,  dying  about 
A.D.  313.  The  wall  surrounding  the  palace  is  in  some 
places  two  hundred  feet  high.  There  are  towers  at  the 
extremities  with  truly  imperial  portals,  many  Doric 
columns  adorning  the  approach.  The  colossal  arched 
gates,  which  resemble  those  of  the  temple  of  Isis  at 
Pompeii  and  the  temple  of  the  sun  at  Baalbec,  have 
been  recently  cleared  at  immense  expense.  Many  niches 
for  statues  and  inscriptions  appear,  but  the  latter  were 
all  broken  to  pieces  in  the  fifth  century.  A  fine  stair- 
case leads  to  the  most  beautiful  part  of  the  palace,  which 
contained  the  imperial  apartments.  The  style  of  this 
palace  is  absolutely  unique,  representing  the  death  of 
the  old  and  the  birth  of  modern  art.  As  Dr.  Bulic 
says,  "Without  the  palace  of  Diocletian  we  should  have 


434     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

been  in  the  dark  on  the  relation  between  the  earhest 
Christian  architecture  and  the  Roman  architecture.'' 
A  noble  mausoleum,  far  superior  to  the  famous 
mausoleum  of  Napoleon,  was  constructed  within  the 
palace  area  and  adorned  with  twenty-five  Corinthian 
columns.  Perhaps,  however,  this  never  received 
Diocletian's  body,  as  tradition  states  that  shortly  after 
his  death  it  became  a  prison  for  Christians  who  were 
martyred  there.  Their  bones  have  actually  been  found, 
in  recent  years,  walled  in  the  niches. 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  effect  which  the  sight 
of  this  ancient  palace  still  produces  upon  an  intelligent 
traveler.  Its  size  is  astounding,  for  it  yet  accommodates 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  people  within  its 
ancient  walls.  Its  magnificence  when  new  must  have 
been  almost  without  parallel.  Even  yet  it  causes  all 
modern  mansions  and  government  buildings  to  appear 
small  and  unworthy. 

But  far  more  than  this  is  its  historic  importance  to 
Christian  architecture.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that 
this  latest  palace  produced  by  Roman  imperial  art,  con- 
structed for  the  "last  really  great  emperor,"  furnished 
the  "source  and  type  of  the  arcaded  interiors  of  the 
early  Christian  basilicas  built  soon  after  under  Con- 
stantine,  some  of  which  had  architraves,  while  others 
had  their  lines  of  arcades  on  either  side  of  the  nave."  ^^ 
The  mausoleum,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  built  under 
the  center  of  the  palace  dome,  is  undoubtedly  "the  pro- 
genitor of  the  Christian  baptistry." 

It  will  not  be  forgotten  that  it  was  under  Diocletian 
that  the  Christians  were  most  violently  persecuted,  and 

**    See  A.  L.  Frothingham,  Roman  Cities  in  Italy  and  Dalmatia,  1910, 
p.  318#. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  435 

that  this  persecution  took  place  at  the  exact  time  when 
this  palace  was  in  process  of  erection.  Even  after  the 
persecution  ceased  elsewhere,  the  emperor  personally 
conducted  it  in  this  locality.  But  he  failed  in  his  pur- 
pose to  exterminate  the  disciples  of  the  new  faith. 
Christianity  had  been  introduced  into  Dalmatia  prob- 
ably by  Titus  (2  Tim.  4:  10),  and  recently  discovered 
monuments  prove  that  as  early  as  the  beginning  of 
the  second  century  it  had  found  adherents  among  the 
higher  class  of  citizens  and  even  among  the  high 
officials  of  the  palace.  Lucius  Ulpius,  contemporary 
with  the  first  bishop,  Doimus,  established  at  about  the 
end  of  the  second  century  a  large  Christian  cemetery 
beside  his  own  monument  near  his  villa,  and  his  de- 
scendants continued  for  a  century  or  more  to  erect 
Christian  mausoleums  near  their  own  family  monu- 
ments. Even  more  interesting  than  this  is  the  fact  that 
in  some  inscriptions  recently  found  it  is  proved  that 
among  the  martyrs  of  the  third  century  there  were  even 
some  members  of  the  illustrious  family  of  Valerius,  to 
which  ancestry  the  Emperor  Domitian  himself  be- 
longed. 

Instead  of  being  destroyed  by  Diocletian's  persecu- 
tion, parts  of  the  palace  were  turned  into  Chris- 
tian worshiping  places  not  long  after  the  emperor's 
death,  and  the  worshipers  so  multiplied  that  by  the 
fourth  century  the  Christian  cemetery  had  extended  at 
least  over  three  hundred  feet  in  all  directions  from  the 
central  basilica.  Out  of  this  cemetery — *'the  greatest 
known  open-air  Christian  cemetery  in  all  the  ancient 
world"  (Frothingham) — have  come  most  important  in- 
scriptions and  monuments.  As  early  as  1894  Professor 
Bulic  could  report  that  the  collection  in  the  museum 


436    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

comprised  at  least  twelve  thousand  small  objects,  in- 
cluding 2,034  inscriptions,  387  pieces  of  sculpture,  176 
architectural  fragments,  1,548  terra-cottas  and  vases, 
1,213  glass  objects,  3,184  metal  articles,  229  gems,  etc. 
Yet  the  largest  excavation  projects  have  been  carried 
on  since  this  period.  In  1902  it  was  estimated  that 
60,000  feet  of  material  were  removed,  and  in  1905  a 
field  railway  was  constructed  and  the  government  took 
part  in  clearing  the  debris,  using  it  for  the  filling  of  a 
nearby  marsh. 

Besides  the  ruins  of  very  ancient  churches  which 
have  been  uncovered,  and  many  grave  inscriptions, 
some  intensely  interesting  relics  from  the  tombs  of 
Christian  martyrs  have  been  recovered.  Among  the 
most  remarkable  discoveries  may  be  mentioned  the 
sarcophagus  of  the  Abbess  Johanna,  found  in  1884,  the 
unique  baptistry  first  discovered  in  1842  but  more  re- 
cently described,  and  the  colossal  Christian  sarcophagus 
of  Julia  Aurelia  Hilara  (sixth  century).  On  the  latter 
is  sculptured  the  remarkable  figure  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  in  short  tunic  with  hands  extended  holding 
on  his  shoulders  a  lamb,  exactly  after  the  type  of  that 
seen  in  the  Roman  catacombs.  The  baptistry  is  of 
octagonal  shape,  its  walls  adorned  by  large  white 
marble  columns,  and  its  central  baptismal  font  sus- 
tained by  slender  columns  of  red  marble.  In  19 15  Dr. 
Jelic  described  a  unique  ornamental  communion  table 
made  of  marble  and  adorned  with  figures  of  Christ  and 
the  apostles.  Instead,  however,  of  thirteen  figures,  this 
frieze,  strangely  enough,  has  seventeen — the  extra 
saints  probably  being  four  of  the  most  celebrated 
martyrs  of  Salona.  On  the  table  was  a  figure  of 
Jonah   thrown    out    from     the    mouth    of   a    strange, 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  437 

elaborately  carved  monster — this   picture   symbolizing, 
of  course,  the  resurrection. 

Several  remarkable  mosaics  have  been  discovered. 
One  of  these,  reported  in  1903,  is  that  in  connection 
with  an  ancient  Christian  baptistry  (about  a.d.  400), 
representing  two  stags  drinking  from  a  vase,  while 
over  them  are  placed  these  appropriate  words  from 
Ps.  42 :  I :  "As  the  heart  panteth  after  the  water 
brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God." 
Another  polychrome  mosaic,  even  more  impressive,  was 
uncovered  July  11,  1902,  in  the  choir  of  the  basilica. 
In  the  midst  of  a  very  large  section  of  beautiful  mosaic 
pavement  the  excavators  found  an  inscription,  parallelo- 
piped  in  shape,  in  honor  of  some  martyrs  who  lived  in 
the  days  of  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Ambrose.  The  letters 
were  cut  into  the  mosaic  and  originally  filled  with 
colored  paste  mixed  with  crystalline  powder,  the  cubes 
around  the  letters  being  of  blue  indigo  color  and  of  a 
vitreous  substance.  Each  line  of  lettering  was  sep- 
arated by  a  line  of  cubes  of  Venetian  red,  and  the  en- 
tire inscription  was  surrounded  by  seven  lines  of  cubes 
of  various  colors.    This  curious  inscription  reads : 

"A  new  construction  after  the  old;  Escychius  his  grandson, 
with  the  clergy  and  people,  has  finished  it  (in  honor  of)  Synferius. 
Receive  these  labors  as  gratefully  given  to  thy  house,  O  Christ.'* 

The  word  which  we  here  translate  ''house,"  is 
written  in  its  usual  form,  domus,  but  means  "church." 
Another  inscription  recently  discovered  reads : 

"Jesus  Christ,  'King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords,  may  thine 
eyes  be  open  in  mercy  day  and  night  over  thy  house." 

A  funeral  inscription  dating  from  the  end  of  the 
third  century  shows  how  even  the  soldiers  and  highest 


438     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

government  officials  were  at  this  time  unashamed  of 
their  Christianity: 

"To  Quintia  .  .  .  daughter  of  Quintus  Germanus,  a  chief 
centurion,  a  noble  woman,  who  paid  the  debt  of  nature  at  the  age 
of  thirty,  Flavius  Valens,  special  governor  of  Upper  Pannonia, 
to  his  beloved  wife."  ^^ 

From  A.D.  303-305  multitudes  of  Christians  suffered 
martyrdom,  and  as  early  as  a.d.  375  their  tombs  had 
become  so  sacred  that  Constantine,  ex-proconsul  of 
Africa,  and  his  wife,  Honoria,  came  back  here  choosing 
for  themselves  a  burial  place  "near  to  the  martyrs," 

Over  600  short  inscriptions  have  been  found,  mostly 
in  the  large  Christian  cemetery.  This  cemetery,  as  has 
been  previously  indicated,  has  been  a  source  of  in- 
calculable wealth  to  Christian  epigraphy  and  martyr- 
ology.  It  had  been  partially  opened  earlier,  but  in 
1859  a  farmer  struck  with  his  plow  the  cover  of  a 
marble  sarcophagus  having  engraved  on  the  top  of  it 
the  story  of  Hippolytus  and  Phaedra.  This  roused 
great  interest,  and  soon  other  wonderful  sarcophagi 
were  found,  among  which  was  the  immense  one  of  the 
matron  Asclepia,  dating  from  the  end  of  the  third  or 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  known  for  its  re- 
markable representation  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  Several 
Christian  cemeteries  have  been  found,  but  the  most 
important  is  this  Manastirine  cemetery,  which  Dr.  Bulic 
calls  the  "most  important  ever  discovered,"  both  be- 
cause of  a  long  uninterrupted  series  of  monuments 
dating  from  the  first  Christian  generation  up  to  the 

*•  Jacques  Zeiller,  Les  Origines  Chretiennes  dans  la  province  romaine 
de  Dalmatic,  p.  85.  This  book  gives  many  texts ;  a  detailed  description  of 
the  early  evangelization  of  Dalmatia,  and  good  illustrations ;  also  the 
names  of  all  the  known  Dalmatian  Christians  from  the  Diocletian  era  to 
the  sixth  century  so  far  as  these  are  found  in  tradition  or  in  the  cemeteries 
here. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  439 

seventh  century,  and  because  of  the  novehy  of  its  archi- 
tectural forms,  but  especially  because  of  its  intimate 
connection  with  celebrated  historic  martyrs  such  as  St. 
Doimus  (d.  a.d.  107),  whose  tomb  Dr.  Bulic  believes 
he  has  recovered.^' 

One  other  point  should  be  remembered  as  showing 
the  importance  of  the  discovery  of  the  ancient  episcopal 
basilica  mentioned  above,  with  its  surrounding  build- 
ings, baptistry,  confirmation  hall,  episcopal  palace,  and 
hospice.  If  at  Ravenna  and  Parenzo  we  see  the  early 
Christian  basilica  almost  untouched  in  its  architecture 
and  the  main  lines  of  its  decorative  mosaics,  better  in 
fact  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  it  is  to  Salona 
that  we  must  come  to  study  the  accessories  and  sur- 
roundings of  the  early  churches."  ^^  Both  the  episcopal 
church,  which  was  the  city  cathedral,  and  another 
suburban  basilica  (around  which  was  located  the  large 
cemetery)  have  been  thoroughly  excavated.  "In  both 
basilicas  numerous  columns,  capitals,  mosaic  pavements, 
cornices,  parapets  and  screens,  dating  from  the  fourth 
to  the  sixth  centuries,  have  been  uncovered,  giving  us 
all  the  necessary  elements  for  reconstructing  the 
artistic  appearance  of  the  interior."  Dr.  Frothingham 
considers  the  confirmation  hall  of  the  suburban  church, 
which  contained  the  symbolic  mosaic  representing  the 
stags  drinking  from  the  sacred  fountain  to  be  "the 
most  perfect  known."  ^' 

^With  the  exception  of  other  autHorities  mentioned,  this  description 
was  taken  from  Guida  di  Spalato  e  Salona,  by  Prof.  Dr.  L.  Jelic 
Mons.  Dir.  Fr.  Bulic,  e  Professor  S.  Rutar,  Zara,  1894,  and  in  Bullettino 
di  archeol.  e  star.  dabn.  a.  1902,  1903,  1904,  1906 ;  Revue  Bibliqne  October, 
1915.  I  am  indebted  to  Prof.  Amos  W.  Patten  of  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity for  first  calling  my  attention  to  the  special  importance  of  these  ex- 
cavations. 

^Frothingham,  op.  cit,  p.  279. 

■»  Op.  cit.,  p.  281. 


440     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

7.  New  Light  from  Fourth  and  Fifth  Century 
Christian  Basilicas  and  Sixth  Century 
Christian  Towns  Still  Standing  in  the 
Deserts  of  Syria 
The  Christian  monuments  of  Syria  constitute  one 
of  the  seventy  wonders  of  modern  archeological  ex- 
ploration. The  ''thousand  and  one  churches"  of  Kara 
Dagh  recovered  for  us  only  twenty-six  Christian 
basilicas  dating  at  the  very  earliest  from  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, and  in  all  the  rest  of  Asia  Minor  and  in  all  European 
Turkey,  Italy,  and  North  Africa — those  rich  centers  of 
primitive  Christianity — scarcely  an  equal  number  of 
equally  ancient  churches  remain  in  a  good  state  of  preser- 
vation; yet  in  northern  central  Syria,  within  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  of  Antioch,  in  a  district  measuring 
not  much  more  than  a  hundred  miles  square,  not  only 
scores  of  fourth  century  churches  have  been  found,  but 
also  at  least  one  hundred  Christian  towns  and  villages 
stand  practically  uninjured,  just  as  they  were  left  by 
their  owners  over  thirteen  hundred  years  ago. 

There  is  no  other  land  where  the  architectural  mon- 
uments of  antiquity  have  been  preserved  to  us  in  such 
large  numbers,  in  such  perfection,  and  in  so  many 
varieties.  But  far  better  than  this,  these  are  monuments 
of  Christian  architecture  that,  show  us  the  ordinary 
town  life  of  the  Christians  from  the  fourth  to  the  seventh 
century  in  a  most  vivid  way.  To  the  surprize  of  every 
one,  it  is  found  that  this  was  a  population  of  wealth  and 
refinement,  the  houses  being  well  lighted,  well  ven- 
tilated, and  beautifully  ornamented.  Wall  paintings 
and  mosaics  of  rare  workmanship  and  vessels  of  glass 
in  a  hundred  different  shapes  of  rare  beauty  have  been 
found. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  441 

While  some  early  travelers,  like  Burckhardt,  Seetzen, 
de  Laborde,  Wetzstein,  William  Rey,  M.  Porter,  and 
a  few  others  had  reported  the  existence  of  strange 
ghost  cities  in  the  trackless  wilderness,  it  was  the 
Marquis  Charles  Jean  Melchior  de  Vogiie,  with  Wad- 
dington  as  his  colleague,  who  first  drew  the  attention 
of  the  learned  world  definitely  to  these  architectural 
marvels.  He  made  an  extensive  tour  in  1861-62,  and 
five  years  later  published  the  results  in  two  magnificent 
volumes  which  at  once  drew  the  attention  of  scholars.^" 
De  Vogiie  reported  that  he  had  found  over  a  hundred 
cities  within  a  territory  of  seventy-five  to  a  hundred 
miles,  all  built  in  practically  the  same  style  and  dating 
from  the  same  epoch,  the  epoch  of  primitive  Christian- 
ity, thus  throwing  light  on  the  most  obscure  era  of 
historic  art.  These  towns  are  in  general  so  well  pre- 
served that  one  must  "almost  refuse  to  them  the  name 
of  ruins."  The  life  which  they  reveal  is  not  that  of  the 
catacombs,  hidden,  secretive,  and  sepulchral,  but  the 
free  and  open  life  of  unrestrained  development  under 
favorable  conditions,  "a  large,  opulent,  artistic  life,  dis- 
playing itself  in  roomy  dwellings  built  of  heavy  hewn 
stone,  perfectly  put  together  on  a  palatial  plan,"  while 
the  inscriptions  bring  to  us  voices  from  a  previously  un- 
known "Church  triumphant."  The  inscriptions,  how- 
ever, are  full  of  a  Christian  humility  contrasting  in  a 
marked  way  with  the  bombast  of  the  pagan  inscriptions. 
They  are  almost  universally  architectural,  not  sepulchral, 
representing  the  utterances  of  the  owners  and  architects 
of  dwellings,  churches,  and  other  monuments.  These 
Christians  were  not  ashamed  of  their  Christianity,  for 

^  U Architecture  civile  et  religieuse  .  .  .  dans  la  Syrie  centrale,  Paris, 
1865-1877. 


442     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

almost  every  house  was  marked  by  the  sign  of  the  cross, 
while  the  well-known  symbols  of  salvation  were  en- 
graved on  the  doors  and  the  windows,  painted  on  the 
walls,  and  embroidered  on  the  garments. 

De  Vogue  reported  that  all  the  constructions  in  this 
district  earlier  than  the  first  century  had  totally  disap- 
peared, either  because  made  of  less  durable  material 
than  was  used  by  later  builders,  or  because  previous  to 
the  Roman  period  this  part  of  Syria  could  not  have 
been  policed  or  made  safe  for  colonists.  He  also  pointed 
out  that  these  towns  represent  a  line  of  frontier  posts 
which  were  then  in  the  most  prosperous  condition,  altho 
now  several  days'  journey  from  cultivated  territory.  By 
the  end  of  the  first  century  there  grew  up  in  all  direc- 
tions "houses,  palaces,  baths,  temples,  theaters,  aque- 
ducts, arches  of  triumph,  and  cities  built  in  the  style  of 
all  the  Roman  colonies,"  a  Greek  style  modified  by  local 
interests.^^ 

It  was  nearly  forty  years  after  De  Vogue's  great 
journey  before  any  additional  work  of  an  equally 
thorough  nature  was  done  in  this  strange  country,  but 
in  1 899- 1 900,  1 904- 1 905,  and  1909,  the  American  and 
Princeton  Archeological  Expeditions  to  Syria  conducted 
elaborate  investigations  under  the  direction  of  Prof. 
Howard  Crosby  Butler  with  Dr.  William  Prentice  as  his 
colleague,  the  latter  having  special  charge  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  inscriptions.^^'  The  results  of  this  expedition, 
worthily  published  by  Professor  Butler,  in  sumptuous 
double-folios,  of  which  ten  volumes  have  already  ap- 
peared,  represent   the   finest   monument   of   American 

"  De  Vogiie,  op.  cit.,  pp.  1-6. 

"^  The  expedition  of  1899-1900  was  not    a  Princeton  undertaking  but 
was  called  the  American  expedition. 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  443 

scholarship  in  the  field  of  Christian  archeology.  The 
writer  feels  himself  wholly  unable  to  give  in  a  brief  sum- 
mary any  adequate  conception  of  the  magnitude  and  im- 
portance of  these  discoveries,  but  in  order  so  far  as 
possible  to  do  this,  he  will  freely  use  Professor  Butler's 
facts  and  felicitous  phrases. 

This  first  American  expedition  made  an  elaborate 
and  thorough  search  of  the  entire  region  previously  ex- 
plored by  De  Vogiie  in  north  central  Syria.  The  ex- 
plorers visited  every  site  previously  described  and  dis- 
covered many  new  sites  and  important  archeological 
remains;  they  also  visited  every  site  described  by 
De  Vogiie  in  the  Djebel  Hauran  with  the  exception  of 
three.  They  procured  an  enormous  number  of  dated 
monuments,  and  were  able  not  only  to  corroborate  the 
general  results  obtained  by  De  Vogiie  but  also  to  correct 
him  in  numbers  of  instances  and  to  add  largely  to  his 
results  in  many  directions.  It  was  elaborately  proved 
that  the  architecture  used  was  not  Byzantine  but  an 
alliance  between  the  Greek  style  and  some  hitherto  un- 
known oriental  style.  The  latest  dated  inscription  was 
A.D.  609.  After  this  building  activity  seems  to  have 
ceased  abruptly,  probably  because  of  the  lack  of  rain, 
perhaps  due  indirectly  to  the  cutting  down  of  the 
forests,  and  more  directly  to  the  coming  of  the  Persians, 
A.D.  538,  who  not  only  destroyed  the  olive  groves  but  also 
practically  destroyed  the  country.^^^  It  was  found  that 
the  people  of  the  northern  half  of  Northern  Syria  were 
poorer  and  were  more  influenced  from  Antioch,  while 
those  of  the  southern  half  were  richer  and  more  in- 

•^''  Professor  Butler  writes  me  that  the  first  invasion  of  Syria  by  the 
Persians  in  538  does  not  seem  to  have  affected  the  smaller  cities  or  towns  of 
Syria.  But  the  second  invasion  under  Chosroes  II.  (590-628)  seems  to  have 
put  an  end  to  the  Christian  civilization  here. 


444     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

fluenced  from  Apamea;  yet  strangely  enough  in  the 
north  was  found  the  "most  magnificent  ruin  of  early 
Christian  architecture  in  the  world — the  church  of  St. 
Simeon  Stylites  at  Kal'at  Siman."  This  church  was 
probably  not,  however,  merely  a  local  enterprise,  but  was 
built  by  contributions  throughout  all  Christendom. 

The  earliest  well-preserved  Christian  churches  date 
from  the  fourth  century,  tho  the  Christians  were  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  population  as  early  as  the  third 
century.  Previous  to  this  the  architects  were  non-Chris- 
tians, and  the  work  was  in  the  usual  classic  style  as 
found  in  the  provinces.  Perhaps  one  most  interesting  of 
the  pre-Christian  ruins  consists  of  the  subterranean 
rockhewn  tombs  at  Il-Magharah.  These  are  very  elabo- 
rate and  magnificent,  but  contain  no  inscriptions  nor  sar- 
cophagi. The  civic  buildings  of  the  second  century  are 
less  grandiose  but  more  refined  than  the  third  century 
ruins  at  Baalbec. 

With  the  fourth  century,  as  we  have  said,  the  dated 
monuments  become  numerous  and  a  large  majority 
of  these  are  Christian.  It  is  often  only  by  the  inscrip- 
tions that  certain  basilicas  can  be  known  as  churches, 
since  these  are  made  in  exact  imitation  of  the  public 
buildings  of  the  Romans  of  the  previous  period.  The 
private  houses  are  often  most  elegantly  built,  and  the 
pyramid  tombs,  such  as  the  mausoleum  at  Rbeah  and 
the  miniature  temple  at  Ruweha  (a.d.  384),  are  often 
''marvels  of  construction."  The  pyramid  tomb  just 
mentioned  was  corbelled  in,  and  built  without  mortar 
or  clamps  of  metal,  and  can  probably  be  compared 
favorably  with  any  pyramid  tomb  in  the  world. 

We  continue  to  follow  Prof.  Howard  Crosby  Butler 
and  read  with  delighted  surprize  his  description  of  a 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  445 

Christian  villa  at  Ruweha  in  the  Djebel  Riha  (a.d. 
396).  The  plan  is  a  great  square,  on  the  north  side  of 
which  rises  a  long  two-story  building  having  four  com- 
partments in  each  story  and  a  two-story  portico  in 
front.  On  the  west  side  of  the  court  are  two  large 
compartments  with  the  entrance — a  triple  gateway — 
between  them.  The  entrance  is  guarded  by  a  tower, 
which  also  doubtless  served  as  a  porter's  lodge.  The 
ornamentation  is  fine,  and  many  Christian  symbols  are 
carved  in  prominent  places.  All  the  more  expensive 
dwellings  have  private  stables  at  the  back  of  the  court- 
yard ;  the  more  modest  houses  have  these  on  the  ground 
floor.  The  stairs  of  the  houses,  usually  of  stone,  are 
always  on  the  outside,  usually  at  one  end  of  the  portico. 
One  of  the  strangest  things  connected  with  these 
early  Christian  towns  is  found  in  the  light  thrown  on 
the  ''captains  of  industry"  at  this  early  era.  In  some 
instances  whole  blocks  have  been  preserved  showing  the 
shops  of  the  fourth  century.  These  are  a  series  of  small 
two-story  dwellings  with  only  a  doorway  on  the  ground 
floor  of  each,  but  with  doors  and  windows  on  the  floor 
above.  Universally  there  is  a  long,  low,  two-story 
portico  in  front.  The  lower  chambers  were  evidently 
used  as  storehouses  for  the  merchandise  which  was  dis- 
played during  the  day  in  the  portico  fronting  the 
street.  The  upper  story  was  undoubtedly  the  home  of 
the  proprietor.  Christian  inscriptions  are  found  upon 
many  of  these  shops.  Business  men  of  that  era  were 
not  ashamed  of  their  Christianity.  One  inscription 
written  a.d.  350  reads : 

"One  God,  one  Christ,  be  a  helper  to  Flavins 
Eusebios,  buyer  and  builder." 

Between  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  there  was 


446     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

some  development  in  architecture,  so  that  strange  styles 
of  capitals  and  a  new  and  rich  Christian  symbolism  ap- 
pear. In  the  fifth  century  classic  models  of  ornamenta- 
tion are  less  and  less  used.  The  churches  of  this  era, 
instead  of  the  nine  arches  on  either  side  of  the  nave  as 
in  the  fourth  century,  now  have  seven  and  sometimes 
five  arches,  and  the  central  nave  becomes  much  wider 
and  the  apse  arch  much  broader,  while  bands  of  chain 
and  basket  work  ornament  the  moldings.  The  churches 
are  large  and  magnificent,  often  having  splendid  bap- 
tistries in  connection  with  them,  and  vast  inns  for  the 
accommodation  of  pilgrims;  they  often  stand  inside  of 
strong  forts,  whose  towers  occasionally,  as  at  Kasr 
il-Benat,  rise  to  six  stories  in  height.  The  ecclesiastical 
dwellings  around  the  churches  are  small  and  of  the 
simplest  rectangular  style,  almost  entirely  devoid  of 
moldings.  The  shops  of  the  fifth  century  are  sub- 
stantially like  those  of  the  fourth,  while  the  houses  with 
restaurants  and  baths  near  by  prove  that  luxury  and 
wealth  still  continued. 

The  sixth  century  saw  the  elaboration  and  perfec- 
tion of  all  the  architectural  motifs  that  had  been  ini- 
tiated and  developed  in  the  two  centuries  preceding. 
This  was  the  century  that  produced  the  church  of  St. 
Simeon  Stylites  and  many  others  of  magnificent  pro- 
portions and  splendid  perfection  of  details.  Professor 
Butler  shows  that  these  Syrian  Christians  were  better 
architects  than  even  those  royal  engineers  of  Justinian 
who  designed  and  executed  the  famous  Saint  Sophia  in 
Constantinople.  Altho  their  work  was  not  so  stupendous 
and  awe  inspiring,  it  was  more  symmetrical  and  beauti- 
ful. We  dare  not  attempt  to  describe  the  many  beauti- 
ful churches  photographed  and  minutely  described  by 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  447 

Professor  Butler  in  his  great  volumes,  but  will  merely 
add  that  Professor  Butler  declares  too  much  can  not  be 
said  of  the  beauty  of  the  interior  decorations  and  the 
crisp  and  graceful  carving  of  the  great  archivolts,  the 
elaborate  and  flowing  ornament  of  the  chancel  arch,  the 
bold  treatment  of  the  foliage  of  the  great  capitals  of 
the  piers  of  the  naves,  and  the  graceful  turnings  of  the 
slender  colonnettes. 

So  far  as  domestic  architecture  is  concerned,  the 
sixth  century  offers  to  us  several  very  fine  palatial 
Christian  residences.  One  of  these  at  Serdjilla  is  a 
double  house  of  imposing  appearance,  while  several  at 
Ruweha  are  real  mansions,  in  some  cases  so  well  pre- 
served that  they  need  only  roofs  and  a  few  minor  re- 
pairs to  make  them  quite  worthy  to  be  used  as  town 
residences  for  wealthy  gentlemen  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. In  the  sixth  century  three-story  houses  were  not 
uncommon  in  the  cities,  and  the  rear  entrances,  as  well 
as  those  in  front,  began  to  be  made  attractive.  The 
beauty  of  some  of  the  doorways  and  windows  could 
hardly  be  surpassed  in  any  modern  structure.  The 
wood  and  bronze  doors  of  ancient  times  have  disap- 
peared, but  some  very  fine  doors  of  black  basalt  remain. 
These  were  hung  with  such  mechanical  perfection  that 
they  still  "swing  so  easily  upon  their  ball  and  socket 
hinges  that  they  can  be  moved  by  one  finger." 

The  first  Princeton  archeological  expedition  to 
Syria  (1904-5)  re-examined  certain  sites  previously 
explored  by  the  first  expedition,  and  then  passed  to 
other  regions  farther  north,  which  few  travelers  had 
ever  reached,  and  where  only  four  or  five  buildings  had 
been  mentioned  by  De  Vogiie,  and  only  a  few  others  by 
the  first  American  expedition. 


448     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  technical  diversities  of  style  between  the  differ- 
ent sections  of  Syria  and  between  the  fourth,  fifth,  and 
sixth  century  architecture  in  each  section  are  elaborately 
set  forth  by  the  distinguished  director  of  the  expedition. 
Space  restrains  us  from  attempting  even  to  hint  at  these 
important  comparisons. 

Perhaps  of  most  popular  interest  would  be  Professor 
Butler's  observations  concerning  the  Christian  archi- 
tecture of  the  fourth  century  in  this  district  which,  as 
in  those  previously  examined,  shows  every  variety  of 
structure  required  by  a  civilized  people.  Here,  as  else- 
where, were  perfectly  developed  basilicas  of  the  fourth 
century;  public  baths  as  luxurious  as  those  of  pagan 
times,  the  best  preserved  houses  of  antiquity — not  ex- 
cepting those  of  Pompeii — and  mausoleums  of  great 
magnificence.  It  was  found  that  classical  ornament, 
in  the  hands  of  these  Syrian  architects,  was  infused 
with  a  luxuriant  grace  unknown  at  Rome,  while  some 
of  the  most  stupendous  and  some  of  the  richest  build- 
ings of  the  Roman  empire  were  erected  here.  The 
Christian  period  of  architecture  in  Syria  did  not  in- 
augurate a  decline  as  it  did  in  Europe,  but  began  a  new, 
fresh,  and  vigorous  style  that  continued  in  its  prime 
until  cut  off  by  Mohammedanism. 

The  oldest  architectural  fragment  could  be  dated 
by  inscription  to  a.d.  73,  and  similarly  the  oldest 
church  to  a.d.  372.  In  the  mountains  of  northern 
Syria  the  vault  was  very  little  used,  and  then  in  a  style 
peculiar  to  this  region.  The  building  material  here  was 
almost  exclusively  limestone  and  produced  effects  often 
''unmatched  for  beauty."  In  the  'Ala  plateau  the  vault 
was  used  more  than  elsewhere;  while  basalt  was  the 
ordinary  building   material,   houses   were   occasionally 


«  ^ 


E-  o  r^  H 


rEEE^sjsrsraKw^ri-n: 


CllKlSIIAX  COXVKXT   (.a.d.  390-41.S) 
From  IJuller,   "Ancient  Architpfturo  in   Syria" 


OCTAGONAL   CHURCH    AND   RESTAURANT   AT   MONDJEI.EIA,    SYRIA 
From  De  Vogiie,  "L'Arcliileoture   dans  la   Syrie   centrale,"    (Vol.    2) 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  449 

constructed  of  quadrated  limestone  blocks,  and  towns 
built  of  sun-dried  bricks — tho  such  towns  have  now 
completely  disappeared  except  for  motuids  of  clay.  All 
the  churches  were  built  on  the  basilica  plan,  altho  some- 
times containing  unique  featm-es,  and  were  usually 
roofed  with  beams  of  great  length.  One  church,  a.d. 
582,  very  nearly  anticipates  by  500  years  the  Lombard 
and  French  Romanesque  system,  which  has  vaults  con- 
structed above  the  nave  and  side  aisles.  The  Kasr  Ibn 
Wardan  church,  which  is  situated  on  the  rolling  desert 
far  from  contemporary  buildings,  is  the  most  imposing 
of  all  ancient  sites  in  northern  Syria,  and  is  in  some 
respects  the  most  remarkable  of  all.  Seen  from  a  dis- 
tance its  ruins  "loom  up  like  the  vision  of  some  great 
modern  city";  yet  it  represents  a  group  of  only  three 
buildings,  a  square  domed  church,  a  large  palace,  and 
the  military  barracks.  The  bricks  of  which  these  build- 
ings are  partially  composed  came  from  Constantinople 
kilns.  Tradition  declares  these  bricks  were  made  of 
clay  mixed  with  rose  water.  Professor  Butler  believes 
this  church,  like  those  at  il-Anderin  and  Falul,  may  have 
been  built  by  an  architect  from  Antioch.  A  fine-grained 
white  limestone  and  rare  marbles  of  various  colors  were 
used  in  the  shafts  and  capitals  of  the  interior,  while  the 
floors,  and  possibly  some  of  the  walls,  were  covered 
with  beautiful  mosaics.  The  local  basalt  was  used  for 
the  foundation,  the  lintels,  and  the  jambs,  and  alter- 
nated with  brick  in  the  walls.  The  church  was  sur- 
mounted by  a  dome  about  sixty-five  feet  high,  and  its 
great  arched  windows  and  the  walls  of  the  lower  story 
still  stand  almost  intact.  The  palace,  which  was  two 
stories  in  height j  measures  162  by  170  feet,  and  is 
almost  as  handsomely  built  as  the  church.     Professor 


450     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Butler  believes  that  the  windows  of  the  palace  were 
glazed,  and  indeed  fragments  of  flat  glass  have  been 
found  in  the  ruins.  Great  churches  were  usually  attached 
to  forts  from  the  middle  to  the  end  of  the  sixth  century, 
and  several  of  these  constructions  built  of  this  imported 
brick  may  represent  colonies  of  princes  or  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries  banished  by  the  reigning  emperor. 

The  Djebel  il-'Ala  and  Djebel  Barisha  are  bordered 
by  the  Roman  road  running  from  Antioch  to  Aleppo. 
Here  both  American  expeditions  found  and  described 
many  ruins.  This  differed  from  the  Djebel  Riha  in 
having  no  rich  suburban  villas,  all  the  town  buildings 
being  huddled  together  evidently  for  business  purposes. 
These  towns  ordinarily  had  gardens  in  the  plaza,  two 
or  three  churches — finer  in  most  cases  than  those  of 
Djebel  Riha, — and  occasionally  a  watch  tower;  but  the 
centers  of  the  towns  were  exclusively  given  up  to  shops. 
The  inscriptions,  too,  were  found  in  three  languages, 
Greek,  Latin,  and  Syriac,  showing  that  these  ancient 
Christians  were  in  close  touch  with  cosmopolitan  busi- 
ness centers. 

From  this  business  district  twenty-five  Christian 
churches  have  been  examined,  two  of  these  dating  from 
the  fourth  century,  seven  from  the  fifth,  and  fifteen 
from  the  sixth.  None  of  these  are  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude, the  largest  measuring  only  about  eighty  feet  in 
length,  and  the  smaller  something  over  fifty  feet.  The 
architecture  is  less  dignified  than  that  of  the  more 
southern  districts;  and  altho  often  very  rich,  there  is 
the  over-elaboration  which  shows  lack  of  culture.  In 
connection  with  the  churches,  inns  are  often  found. 
These  have  no  courtyards  nor  enclosed  gardens  as 
private  residences  have.     They  face  the  street  or  open 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  451 

square  and  have  no  dividing  walls  in  the  lower  story, 
the  entire  space  on  the  first  floor  being  longitudinally 
divided  by  a  row  of  mangers.  One  inn  was  definitely 
dated  a.d.  436,  while  the  shops  and  bazaars  in  Dar  Kita 
were  erected  a.d.  350-354.  The  funereal  architecture 
here  is  particularly  impressive,  some  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury tombs,  built  out  of  polygonal  blocks  of  limestone, 
comparing  favorably  in  technique  with  the  best  ex- 
amples in  Greece. 

Limestone,  as  we  have  said,  represents  the  main 
building  material  in  the  mountains  of  North  Syria;  but 
some  doors  of  imported  basalt — for  example  those  at 
Sera — are  beautiful  beyond  description,  both  in  their 
design  and  execution.  In  northern  central  Syria  wood 
and  other  materials  are  used  more  commonly.  The 
largest  cathedral  known  in  northern  central  Syria 
is  found  at  Kerratin  (cir.  a.d.  500),  measuring  195 
feet  long  by  85  feet  wide.  In  north  central  Syria, 
in  the  Djebel  Riha,  the  architectural  materials  are 
more  varied  and  the  structure  and  ornament  are 
exquisitely  beautiful.  Among  the  thirty  ancient  towns 
excavated  in  this  region  there  are  several  which 
show  a  type  having  no  parallel  in  any  part  of  the 
ancient  world.  Serdjilla  is  such  a  town,  having  no 
streets,  alleys,  bazaars,  shops,  or  poor  quarter;  being 
composed  wholly  of  elegant  residential  villas  with  one 
or  two  churches,  and  some  rich  ornamental  tombs  fring- 
ing the  outskirts. 

It  betokens  advanced  civilization  and  a  high  degree 
of  public  order,  as  Professor  Butler  well  points  out,  when 
people  can  live  in  safety  and  in  such  luxury  as  this. 
These  were  not  powerful  lords  or  millionaires,  but  well- 
to-do  people  of  the  middle  class. 


452     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  necropolis  of  Serdjilla  was  rifled  in  ancient 
times,  but  a  number  of  very  large  and  beautiful  sar- 
cophagi were  found.  The  bath  here  dates  from  a.d. 
473,  and  is  the  most  perfect  building  of  its  kind  in 
Syria.  M.  De  Vogiie  describes  this  bath,  but  the 
American  expedition  found  the  many  colored  mosaic 
pavement  with  an  inscription  giving  the  date  of  its 
erection  and  the  name  of  the  donors,  Julianos  and  his 
wife,  Domna.  The  bath  contains  many  rooms,  was  well 
fitted  to  give  cold,  hot,  and  vapor  baths,  and  was 
elaborately  decorated,  the  mosaic  probably  being  its 
chief  adornment.  It  is  intensely  interesting  to  notice 
that  this  best  preserved  bath  in  Syria,  and  perhaps  in 
the  world,  dating  from  a  time  immediately  after  Con- 
stantine,  was  found  in  a  Christian  community  and  for 
the  benefit  of  a  Christian  population.  In  connection 
with  the  bath  was  a  "cafe." 

At  Il-Barah  were  found  a  large  and  a  small  church 
and  some  monumental  tombs  which  are  the  finest  in 
the  entire  region.  At  Ruweha  many  acres  were  covered 
with  ruins  of  shops,  churches,  wonderfully  preserved 
tombs,  and  splendid  villas.  This  town,  like  the  others 
we  have  described,  touched  its  most  flourishing  period 
in  the  fourth  century.  The  north  church  in  this  city 
is  the  largest  in  the  district.  In  some  respects  it  is  the 
most  important  church  in  north  Syria,  owing  to  the 
T-form  of  the  piers  of  the  nave  which  supported  not 
only  the  usual  longitudinal  arches  but  two  higher  trans- 
verse arches  that  spanned  the  nave,  dividing  the  plan 
into  three  equal  squares.  Transverse  arches  carrying 
gables — reducing  the  number  of  roof  trestles — is  a  new 
feature  in  ecclesiastical  architecture,  as  this  church 
dates  from  the  fifth,  or  at  the  latest  from  the  early  sixth, 


CHRISTIAN   TOMP.    FROM    RUW£H7\. 
SYRIA   (A.D.   384) 
American  Expedition  to  Syria,   1S99-1001 


CHRISTIAN    TOMB,    REBeFAH 

(4th    Century) 
American  Expedition  to   Syria,   1S99-1900 


CHRISTIAN   TOMB,   MARATA,    SYRIA    (5th   Century) 
Butler,    "Ancient    Arcliitecture    in    Syria,"    II.    B.,    Tart    2.    Ill,    in:; 


CHURCH  OF  ST.  GEORGE  AT  ZORAH,  SYRIA 
American  Expedition   to   Syria 


BAS.\LT    rxjoR   OF    .\    CHRIS- 
TIAN HOUSE,  KHAN  SEBIL, 
SYRI.\  (4th  or  5th  Century) 
American    Kx|>cditiiiii    to    Syria 


m\^ 


jB/^^ 


A   rilRISTIAN   CHAPEL  AT   KFELLuSIX,   SYRIA    Ca.d.    500-530) 
Fmm   Butler,   "'Aiu-ieiit    Architecture   in   t^yria" 


CITURril   AND   I'ALACK  IX  THE  DESERT  IN  NORTH   SYRIA   (a.d.   561-564) 
From  P.udor,   "Aiieicnt  Arcliitccture  in   Syria" 


CIIKISITAX    iUJLSE   FRU.M   DILLuZA,   NORTH   SYRIA    (6lh   Century) 
From  Butler,   "Ancient  Architecture  in  Syria" 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  453 

century.     The  ornamentation  is  rich,  yet  reserved  and 
used  to  the  best  advantage. 

The  first  American  expedition  made  some  of  its 
best  discoveries  in  the  Djebel  Halakah,  which  is  situ- 
ated to  the  northeast  of  the  great  plain  of  Sermeda, 
through  which  runs  the  great  road  from  Antioch  to 
Aleppo.  The  ruins  are  very  similar  to  those  at  Djebel 
Barisha  and  Djebel  il-'Ala.  The  earliest  inscription 
here  dates  from  Refadeh,  a.d.  j'}^,  and  the  earliest  dated 
house  (which  is  built  of  polygonal  cut  stone)  from  a.d. 
207.  In  general  the  architecture  is  the  same  as  for- 
merly described,  but  the  rock-cut  tombs  of  Katura  are 
unique  in  central  Syria.  These  tombs,  w4iich  are  cut 
from  the  solid  rock,  are  carved  elaborately  and  contain 
remarkable  reliefs.  Sometimes  as  many  as  four  seated 
figures  are  to  be  found  cut  in  a  tomb,  altho  in  the 
majority  of  cases  only  a  single  figure  is  represented. 
These  sepulchers  belonged  to  the  pagan  forefathers  of 
the  Syrian  Christians.  They  must,  at  the  latest,  have 
been  cut  very  shortly  after  the  end  of  the  third  cen- 
tury,   since   Katura    became    predominantly    Christian 

A.D.   2)^6. 

A  tower  house,  five  stories  in  height,  was  discovered 
at  Serdjibleh,  and  at  Kafr  Hauwar  another  was  found 
four  stories  high;  what  is  much  stranger,  there  was  a 
good  sewer  of  original  design  connected  with  one  of 
these  buildings,  the  pipe  being  made  of  terra  cotta  and 
the  whole  construction  furnishing  "proof  of  an  advanced 
state  of  what  might  be  called  sanitary  plumbing  at  this 
early  date."  This  was  not  the  only  locality  where 
sewerage  was  provided,  for  Professor  Butler  says :  "The 
latrinae  of  many  houses  in  the  Hauran  have  niches  or 
brackets  for  water  jars  in  their  side  walls,  and  others 


454     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

have  wash  hand  basins  corbelled  out  from  their  walls. 
If  the  degree  of  advance  in  these  particulars  which 
have  to  do  with  sanitation  and  personal  cleanliness  is  to 
be  taken  as  an  index  of  progress  and  civilization,  we 
must  infer  that  the  civilization  of  Syria  in  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries  was  considerably  in  advance  of  that 
of  large  parts  of  Europe  at  the  present  day." 

In  the  Hauran — which  lies  far  south  of  the  other 
districts  visited,  being  close  to  Galilee — the  American 
expedition  examined  many  important  sites.  While  the 
Christian  buildings  here  do  not  look  in  their  ruined  con- 
dition to  be  so  fine  as  those  in  north  Syria,  this  is  because 
of  the  poor  mortar,  which  when  it  falls  away  makes  only 
too  visible  the  rough  stones.  Originally,  however,  the 
buildings  were  covered  with  colored  plaster,  and  the 
churches  and  private  dwellings  were  really  larger  and 
more  attractive  than  those  in  the  north.  The  stucco 
was  very  fine  and  hard,  so  that  moldings  of  this 
material  looked  almost  as  fine  and  beautiful  as  marble, 
while  the  colors — grays,  greens,  deep  reds,  pale  blues, 
browns,  and  soft  yellows — must  have  originally  made 
these  towns  look  more  attractive  than  many  modern 
watering-places.  It  must  be  added,  however,  that  the 
interior  ornamentation,  while  simple  and  virile,  was 
not  as  refined  and  beautiful  as  in  the  north.  At  Umm 
is-Surab  the  expedition  found  a  fifth  century  church 
which  proved  to  be  a  true  basilica  of  three  aisles  sep- 
arated by  two  rows  of  five  columns  each  and  having  an 
upper  story  or  gallery  over  the  side  aisles.  It  was  the 
only  church  found  in  the  Hauran  with  a  gallery. 
Around  the  church  was  just  such  a  group  of  ecclesi- 
astical residences  as  may  be  found  about  the  cloistered 
courts  of  the  medieval  abbeys  of  north  Europe.   Several 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  455 

of  the  churches  had  heathen  temples  adjoining  them, 
which  had  been  turned  to  Christian  purposes. 

It  gives  us  a  new  impression  of  early  Christianity 
to  be  told  by  Professor  Butler  that  even  some  of  the 
stables  of  these  primitive  Christians  are  built  of  stone 
carefully  drest,  handsomely  finished,  and  fitted  together 
with  great  care,  the  jambs  and  all  the  lintels  of  the  door- 
ways being  highly  finished.  At  il-Medjdel  a  Christian 
city  was  found  with  straight  streets  containing  rec- 
tangular blocks  of  houses,  and  even  boasting  of  side- 
walks on  one  or  both  sides.  One  house  (a.d.  431 ),  which 
stood  at  the  street  corner,  had  two  stories  of  high  arched 
apartments  in  front  and  four  stories  of  ordinary  height 
in  the  rear,  and  a  large  stable  behind  it.  This  was  the 
residence  of  a  single  family,  yet  the  upper  story,  in 
true  oriental  fashion,  was  completely  cut  off  from  the 
lower,  being  reached  by  an  outside  staircase.  There 
were  five  rooms  in  the  upper  story;  this  being,  accord- 
ing to  Professor  Butler,  the  women's  quarters. 

Umm  il-Kutten  is  one  of  the  largest  of  the  ruined 
towns  of  the  southern  Hauran.  It  extended  over  half 
a  mile  from  north  to  south  and  its  streets  were  broad 
and  straight.  On  the  outside  of  the  town  were  several 
reservoirs,  one  of  these  being  over  200  feet  long,  85 
feet  wide,  and  16  feet  deep.  At  Der  il-Kahf  a  fortress 
was  found  containing  114  rooms  dating  from  the  year 
when  Constantine  became  Caesar.®^ 

Dr.  William  Kelly  Prentice  was  the  expert  to 
decipher  the  Greek  and  Latin  inscriptions  found  during 

"  The  above  description  has  been  taken  from  the  following  works : 
Architecture  and  Other  Arts,  by  Howard  Crosby  Butler,  N.  Y.,  1903.  The 
Princeton  University  Archceological  Expeditions  to  Syria,  by  Howard 
Crosby  Butler,  1907;  Ancient  Architecture  in  Syria,  by  Howard  Crosby 
Butler,  Leyden,  1910;  Princeton  University  Archceological  Expedition  to 
Syria,  1904-5,  Parts  I-V,  Leyden,  1907-1914. 


456     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  first  American  archeological  expedition.  Of  the 
283  inscriptions  discovered  in  north  central  Syria,  over 
100  were  definitely  dated.  A  large  number  of  these 
had  to  do  with  the  pagan  life  (a.d.  60-250)  which  pre- 
ceded the  domination  of  Christianity  in  this  region,  but 
our  interest  centers  in  the  Christian  inscriptions  dating 
A.D.  324-609;  altho  one  text  (a.d.  50-100)  should  be 
made  an  exception  since  it  mentions  "King  Agrippa, 
Friend  of  Caesar." 

Some  of  the  more  interesting  liturgical  inscriptions 
read  as  follows: 

"Holy  God,  Holy  jMighty  One,  Holy  Immortal  One,  Crucified 

for  us,  have  mercy  upon  us." 
"Glory  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit." 

(a.d.  369.) 

It  is  thrilling  to  find  painted  on  a  wall  of  the  sixth 
century  this  liturgical  hymn: 

"Though  immortal  he  endured  many  sufferings — Jesus  the  Christ. 
Of  David's  race  a  heavenly  branch — Jesus  the  Christ. 
Extol  the  Only  Begotten,  Immortal  One  in  all  the  earth — Jesus 

the  Christ. 
In  compassion  he  descended  from  the  heavens  upon  the  earth — 

Jesus  the  Christ. 
Teacher  of  true  life  from  everlasting — Jesus  the  Christ." 

The  last  three  words  of  each  line  of  this  hymn  are  a 
cryptogram  of  three  numerals.  These  cryptograms  are 
frequently  found;  in  one  case  the  number  8051  being- 
written  upon  a  door-post,  meaning  "The  Lord  shall 
preserve  thy  coming  in  and  thy  going  out,  from  now 
even  for  evermore.    Amen."     (Ps.  121:8.) 

The  funereal  inscriptions  are  numerous.  Some- 
times they  imitate  the  pagan  formula: 

"Ah  why,  when  about  to  face  the  dreadful  voyage,  hast  thou 
not  taken  me,  but  hast  left  to  me,  tenderly  loving,  such  a  wealth  of 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  457 

woe,  bereaving  my  house,  removing  to  another  land?     Alas,  a 

miserable  lot  hath  fate  to  mortals  meted  out." 

"Life  is  a  wheel  1    Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity  !" 
"Thou  runnest,  I  run — unto  where?    Unto  here.'' 

The  Christian  epitaphs  frequently  contain  the  ex- 
pression: 

"Hail,  ye  passers-by,  and  offer  ye  prayers  for  him." 

On  the  Bizzos  tomb  (sixth  century)  is  carved  this 
suggestive  v^ord: 

'T  sojourned  well,  I  journeyed  well,  and  well  I  lie  at  rest. 

Pray  for  me." 

Another  epitaph  which  may  not  be  Christian  but 

which  ends  as  many  Christian  inscriptions  end,  reads: 

"Farewell,  loved  places!  Thou  joy  of  enemies,  grief  of 
children,  expectation  of  the  aged,  healer  of  troubles,  anguish  of 
the  rich,  desire  of  the  wretched,  with  no  respect  of  persons,  mak- 
ing equal  all,  thee  none  may  escape !  An  eternal  dwelling  has 
Thalabathos,  son  of  Ansos,  built  for  himself  and  his  children  and 
his  dependents.    Be  of  good  cheer,  my  soul;  no  one  is  immortal." 

Occasionally  we  have  an  extended  theological  in- 
scription, as  in  the  case  of  Eusebios  and  Antoninos 
(fifth  century) : 

"Thou  who  gavest  life  to  the  human  race  and  didst  enjoin 
death  on  account  of  transgression,  and  in  thine  own  loving- 
kindness  and  tender  mercy  didst  promise  a  resurrection  and  gavest 
us  the  pledge  (the  Holy  Spirit)  .  .  .  Christ,  visit  with  thy 
salvation  thy  servant  Antoninos  .  .  .  and  the  others  who  lie  at 
rest  here,  that  they  may  see  the  good  of  thy  chosen." 

About  1,200  Greek  inscriptions  were  copied  by  the 
Princeton  expedition  (1904-1905).  Many  of  these  were 
dated  and  some  were  exceedingly  important  from  a  his- 
torical or  linguistic  standpoint.  Besides  the  Greek  in- 
scriptions there  were  100  Nabatean,  1,300  North 
Arabic,  and  several  hundred  in  other  languages;  but 
of  these  we  need  not  speak. 


458     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

About  lOO  of  these  Greek  inscriptions  came  from 
the  'Ala,  eight  of  them  belonging  to  the  fourth  century, 
and  over  sixty  to  the  sixth  century.  Often  in  these 
sepulchral  epitaphs  we  see  the  deceased  spoken  of  as 
"ever-victorious,"  "care-free,"  etc.  Some  of  the  more 
noticeable  epitaphs  read: 

Where  Christ  is  gracious  every  man  is  happy" ;  "An  eternal 
place  of  dwelling,  and  at  least  for  those  who  lived  piously  a  gate- 
way of  Holy  Paradise"  ;  "Be  of  good  cheer  ...  no  one  on  earth 
is  immortal." 

One  epitaph,  which  immediately  strikes  attention 
because  of  its  resemblance  to  those  so  often  found  in 
old  English  and  American  graveyards,  reads : 

"Verily,  I  say  to  thee,  I  was  as  thou  also  art;  as  I  am,  thou 
shalt  also  be." 

On  the  churches  all  over  Syria,  texts  of  Scripture 
may  be  found,  and  other  inscriptions  similar  to  those 
used  at  the  present  day,  such  as,  "Enter  into  his  gates 
with  thanksgiving  and  into  his  courts  with  praise." 
It  also  seems  natural  to  see  on  the  lintels  of  private 
houses  the  term,  "Good  Luck";  but  it  seems  strange  to 
find  carved  over  houses  and  baths  and  barracks  such 
words  as  "Life,"  "Light,"  and  such  expressions  as 
those  given  below: 

"This  is  the  gate  of  the  Lord;  the  righteous  shall  enter  in  it." 
"Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  dwells  here,  the  Son  and  Word  of 
God.    Let  no  evil  enter." 

"Of  this  house  the  Lord  shall  guard  the  entrance  and  the  exit ; 
for  the  cross  being  set  before,  an  evil  eye  shall  not  have  power." 
"If  God  be  for  you,  who  is  he  that  is  against  you  ?" 
"What  is  the  name  of  the  bath  ?    Health  !    Through  this  enter- 
ing, Christ  hath  opened  for  us  the  bath  of  healing." 

Sometimes  the  inscriptions  on  these  civic  and  do- 


GRAVES  AND  BURIED  CITIES  459 

mestic  buildings  are  strongly  theological,  especially  in 
the  sixth  century: 

"May  the  Trinity,  our  God,  drive  envy  far  away !  O  Image  of 
the  Heavenly  Word  of  God,  O  kindly  Light,  thou  art  Christ, 
thou  who  hast  built  the  world,  incomprehensible  (  ?),  grant  me 
prosperity,  and  grant  thy  grace,  unfailing  ever !  Christ,  ever 
living,  .  .  .  frees  from  ill ;  therefore  I  fear  no  designs  of  evil, 
no  working  demon,  no  hateful  and  lawless  eye  of  man." 

Many  of  these  inscriptions  had,  without  doubt,  primary 
reference  to  deliverance  from  evil  spirits;  yet  there 
must  have  been,  nevertheless,  a  fine  spiritual  conscious- 
ness back  of  many  of  these  seemingly  spontaneous 
utterances. 

Prayers  of  dead  saints  are  Invoked  from  the  earliest  | 
eras.  One  text  which  is  unique  reads:  "Prayers  of 
apostles,  prophets,  martyrs  for  the  renewal  of  the 
synagog  and  people."  The  Christian  kindness  of  this 
early  population  is  everywhere  manifest,  as  in  this  in- 
scription on  a  house  lintel:  "Abraham  received  the 
angels  In  hospitality"  {cf.  Heb.  13:2).  The  modern 
Church  may  well  rejoice  over  these  newly  discovered 
evidences  of  the  character  of  the  early  Syrian  Church 
which  reached  such  unprecedented  prosperity  so  soon 
after  the  martyr  period.  These  ancient  towns  show 
many  characteristics  which  might  happily  be  imitated 
by  modern  Christian  villages.^^ 

The  unique  value  of  these  Syrian  discoveries  begins 
to  dawn  upon  us  when  we  note  that  in  all  Egypt  only 
three  or  four  poorly  preserved  church  or  ecclesiastical 

''The  above  inscriptions  have  been  selected  from  the  multitude  which 
Dr.  W.  K.  Prentice  and  his  colleagues,  Drs.  Enno  Littmann,  David 
Magie,  and  Duane  Reed  Stuart  have  published:  Greek  and  Latin  Inscrip- 
tions in  Syria,  in  Ancient  Architecture  in  Syria,  Division  III,  Leyden, 
1914;  Princeton  University  Arches ological  Expedition  to  Syria,  Parts  I-V, 
Leyden  1908-12,  Div.  III. 


46o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

buildings  date  from  the  fourth  century;  and  in  all  Italy 
and  Palestine  very  few  more  can  be  found.  The  earliest 
basilicas  in  Rome,  such  as  the  Vatican,  St.  Peter's,  and 
St.  Paul's,  outside  the  walls,  have  long  since  lost  their 
original  character ;  the  same  thing  can  be  said  with  equal 
truth  of  St.  Helena's  buildings  in  Jerusalem;  and  in 
Constantinople  only  one  basilica  dates  as  early  as  the 
fifth  century.  Nowhere  else  on  earth  can  there  be 
found  standing,  practically  unrepaired  and  uninjured, 
so  many  early  churches  as  in  this  strange  desert  land 
of  Syria — and  nowhere  else  can  we  walk  through  the 
streets  of  a  well-built  Christian  town  over  1,500  years 
old. 


II 

NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES    MEN^ 
TIONED    IN   THE   NEW   TESTAMENT 

I.  Recent  Excavations  at  Ephesus 

A  PILE  of  beautiful  white  marble  chips,  which  I 
gathered  two  years  ago  upon  the  site  of  the  Temple  of 
Diana,  lies  on  my  table  as  I  write.  It  was  difficult  to 
find  even  this  slight  evidence  that  on  that  spot  once  stood 
the  most  celebrated  temple,  next  to  Solomon's,  which  was 
ever  constructed.  It  was  rightly  classed  among 
the  ''seven  wonders  of  the  world" ;  yet  even  the  real 
name  of  the  goddess  (Artemis)  has  practically  per- 
ished from  memory,  being  replaced  by  the  Latinized 
form  Diana,  while  the  little  village  built  on  the  ancient 
temple  grounds  is  named  in  memory  of  St.  John — who 
according  to  a  very  old  tradition  spent  the  closing  years 
of  his  life  in  Ephesus — and  the  prominent  tower  of 
Astyages  is  called  the  "Prison  of  St.  Paul." 

The  romantic  story  of  the  digging  up  of  this  ancient 
temple  has  been  told  in  a  most  fascinating  way  by  its 
discoverer,  Mr.  J.  T.  Wood.^  Twenty  years  after  Wood 
had  finished  his  researches  the  Austrian  Archaeological 
Institute  began  work  at  this  famous  city,  publishing  its 
final  results  in  two  magnificent  volumes  in  1906  and 
1912.^       It  was  on  May  2,  1863,  that  Mr.  Wood  began 

^Discoveries  at  EpJiesus,  1877;   Modern  Discoveries   on    the  Site   of 
Ancient  Ephesus,  1890. 

*  Forschungen   in   Ephesos   verdjfcntliclit   vom    osterreichisch-archaolo- 
gischen  Institnt,  1906-1912. 

[46r] 


462     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

searching  for  this  most  famous  monument  of  antiquity. 
He  found  the  boundary  wall  of  its  sacred  precincts  on 
May  2,  1869.  How  he  found  it  is  a  thrilling  story.  He 
had  been  digging  up  the  ancient  city  of  Ephesus  but  had 
discovered  no  sign  of  the  temple  excepting  a  few  in- 
scriptions. But  on  one  of  these  inscriptions,  to  be  men- 
tioned later,  he  found  a  description  of  one  of  the  temple 
processions  in  which  it  was  stated  that  in  carrying  the 
sacred  images  of  the  goddess  from  the  theater  to  the 
temple  the  cavalcade  passed  through  the  Magnesian 
gate.  This  proved  that  the  temple  was  outside  of  the 
city,  and  the  excavator  began  at  once  to  trace  the  city 
walls.  He  soon  found  a  magnificent  gateway  with 
three  openings,  two  for  vehicles  and  one  for  foot  pas- 
sengers, the  deep  ruts  in  the  marble  pavement  showing 
how  much  it  had  been  traveled  in  ancient  times.  The 
road  was  thirty-five  feet  wide  and  the  paving  stones 
were  of  fine  marble.  No  one  of  us  who  have  ever  stood 
upon  this  pavement  and  looked  back  upon  the  great 
theater — and  at  its  side  the  wonderful  ancient  marble 
library,  more  imposing  than  any  Mr.  Carnegie  has 
built — can  ever  forget  the  sight. 

Mr.  Wood  followed  this  sacred  road  for  a  mile  around 
the  mountain  uncovering  the  funeral  monuments  with 
which  it  was  lined  and  taking  note  of  the  porticoes 
built  in  ancient  times  to  shelter  pilgrims  on  their  way 
to  the  temple.  Then  he  began,  inside  of  the  ancient 
sacred  tenienos,  to  hunt  for  the  ruins  of  the  temple 
itself,  and  on  December  31,  1869,  at  a  depth  of  twenty 
feet,  he  came  upon  its  white  marble  pavement  made  of 
slabs  of  pure  marble  three  inches  thick.  For  five  years 
longer  he  worked  here,  employing  from  100  to  300 
native  laborers  digging  up  the  magnificent  capitals  and 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        463 

sculptured  columns  and  massive  blocks  in  white,  blue, 
red  and  yellow  marble,  now  to  be  seen  in  the  Ephesus 
gallery  of  the  British  Museum.  He  found  six  or  more 
wonderfully  sculptured  drums  from  ancient  columns,  so 
huge  that  it  took  fifteen  men  fifteen  days  to  lift  one  of 
them  from  the  pavement.  These  drums  were  twenty 
feet  in  circumference  and  six  feet  high,  having  eight 
figures,  all  of  life  size,  sculptured  on  them.  He  found 
some  splendid  statues,  like  that  of  Hercules  struggling 
with  the  Queen  of  the  Amazons;  what  was  more  im- 
portant, he  discovered  hundreds  of  temple  inscriptions; 
so  that  when  his  excavations  ended  in  1874,  he  had 
cleared  away  over  132,000  cubic  yards  of  debris  from 
the  ancient  site,  and  was  able  to  report  with  certainty 
and  fulness  concerning  this  temple  so  famous  in  heathen 
and  early  Christian  history. 

The  temple  was  octagonal,  and  about  160  feet  in 
width  by  340  in  length;  its  richness  may  be  imagined 
when  we  notice  that,  instead  of  mortar,  gold  is  reputed 
to  have  been  used  between  the  joints  of  the  marble  blocks. 
The  cella,  or  Holy  of  Holies,  was  seventy  feet  wide  and 
open  to  the  sky.  Here  was  found  in  situ  what  the  ex- 
cavator believed  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  ancient 
altar,  twenty  feet  square,  close  to  which  must  have 
stood  the  divine  statue.  Many  fragments  were  found 
of  the  large  white  marble  tiles  which  covered  the  roof 
of  the  temple  and  of  the  double  rows  of  fluted  columns 
in  the  peristyle.  Over  700  inscriptions  were  also 
brought  to  light.^ 

From  the  ruins  and  from  these  inscriptions  many 
facts  were  learned  concerning  the  history  and  ritual  of 

*  See  particularly  Ancient  Greek  Inscriptions  in  the  British  Museum, 
part  III,  section  II,  by  Rev.  E.  L.  Hicks,  1890,  to  which  work  we  are  con- 
stantly indebted. 


464     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  temple,  most  of  which  have  been  confirmed  and 
supplemented  by  later  excavations.  The  earliest  temple, 
which  took  a  century  in  building,  was  completed  480 
B.c.^  just  about  the  time  Ezra  was  bringing  back  the 
exiles  to  Jerusalem.  When  the  temple  was  burned  on 
the  night  Alexander  the  Great  was  born,  all  Asia  helped 
in  its  restoration.  The  temple  worship  was  never  more 
enthusiastic,  seemingly,  than  at  the  era  when  Paul 
visited  Ephesus.  Augustus  (5  B.C.)  built  the  boun- 
daries of  the  temple,  within  which  limits  asylum  to 
criminals  was  promised,  and  the  next  year  ordered  a 
rebuilding  of  a  large  part  of  the  temple.  We  know  that 
in  A.D.  4  the  canals  leading  from  the  temple  to  the  sea 
were  repaired,  and  the  votive  gifts  prove  that  the  temple 
was  increasing  in  wealth  during  the  first  Christian  cen- 
tury. It  was  captured  by  the  Goths  in  the  middle  of 
the  third  century  and  left  desolate;  a  little  later,  when 
the  early  Christians  became  dominant  at  Ephesus,  it 
was  completely  destroyed.  The  earliest  excavator 
actually  found  the  kiln  in  which  these  Christians  turned 
into  lime  such  marble  blocks  as  they  could  not  utilize 
in  other  buildings.  It  is  literally  true  that,  with  the 
exception  of  a  little  pile  of  inferior  foundations,  not 
one  stone  remains  above  another  of  this  most  glorious 
structure. 

Many  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  priests  must 
have  been  connected  with  the  temple  ritual,  and  many 
of  the  priestly  cells  have  been  found  within  the  temple 
area.  While  honors  were  paid  in  the  city  and  even  in 
the  temple  to  Poseidon,  Demeter,  Dionysos,  and  other 
deities,  yet  Artemis  (Diana)  was  supreme,  and  her 
priests  ever  preceded  those  who  had  charge  of  the  cult 
connected  with  the  adoration  of  the  emperor.     In  the 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        465 

month  Artemision  (March- April),  dedicated  especially 
to  this  goddess,  the  greatest  of  all  the  religious  festivals 
was  held,  during  which  there  were  athletic,  dramatic, 
and  musical  contests  in  connection  with  the  ritual. 
These  festivals  were  celebrated  with  especial  glory 
every  fourth  year.  In  a  most  interesting  decree  dating 
from  A.D.  162,  which  Hicks  thinks  to  have  represented 
an  anti-Christian  demonstration,  it  is  decreed  that  all 
the  days  of  that  month  shall  be  sacred  holidays  in  honor 
of  the  goddess. 

The  head  of  the  temple  hierarchy  was  the  Mega- 
byzus,  or  chief  priest,  who  was  probably  a  Persian.  A 
multitude  of  priestesses,  who  came  as  virgins  to  the 
temple,  were  dedicated  to  prostitution  in  the  temple's 
service.*  These  vestals  were  presided  over,  at  least  in 
the  early  period,  by  a  eunuch  priest.  The  bee  which  is 
engraved  on  so  many  of  the  temple  coins  was  the 
symbol  of  the  Ephesian  priesthood,  perhaps  symboliz- 
ing its  organization,  ritual  chastity,  and  beneficent  in- 
dustry; perhaps  having  a  mantic  significance,  the  bee 
in  Greek  myth  being  connected  with  the  foretelling  of 
events.^  Another  important  college  of  the  priests  was 
called  Essenes  (drones),  while  the  priestesses  were 
called  Melissae  (working  bees).  One  important  college 
of  priests,  which  passed  several  decrees  in  honor  of  the 
emperor,  wore  a  peculiarly  rich  dress  marking  them  as 
engaged  in  some  particularly  honorable  service  of  the 
goddess,  and  received  therefore  as  their  special  name 

*  Dr.  Percy  Gardner,  The  Ephesian  Gospel,  1915,  believes  that  altho 
at  Babylon  the  temple  of  Artemis  was  a  seat  of  prostitution,  at  Ephesus, 
through  Greek  influence,  her  worship  was  conducted  "in  far  less  repulsive 
guise."  Yet  he  admits  that  there  were  "elements  of  sexual  impurity"  in 
her  festivals  where  crowds  of  priestesses  performed  "orgiastic  dances"  in 
her  honor. 

'  See  Journal  for  Hellenic  Studies,  XV,  1-24. 


466     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"gold  wearers";  still  another  priestly  caste — who  prob- 
ably had  to  do  with  the  transcribing  and  interpreting  of 
the  sacred  legends — were  called  "theologians." 

Music  must  have  had  a  great  part  in  the  service.  A 
boy's  choir  seems  to  have  been  connected  with  the 
temple,  and  one  inscription  speaks  of  a  golden  chaplet 
being  voted  to  a  Boeotian  flute  player  who  had  won 
honors  during  a  festival.  Like  most  ancient  temples, 
this  sanctuary  was  a  bank  of  deposit,  and  the  "elders" 
or  "presbyters"  are  mentioned  as  having  charge  of  the 
temple  accounts. 

The  "Asiarchs,"  "town  clerk"  and  "temple-keeper," 
mentioned  in  the  Acts  (19:31,  35),  are  officers  well- 
known  from  the  inscriptions.  The  Asiarchs  were 
provincial,  not  municipal,  officers,  who  traveled  in  great 
state  accompanied  by  a  train  of  long-haired  pages,  and 
had  special  charge  of  the  great  festival  in  adoration  of 
the  emperor,  at  which  time  each  Asiarch  tried  to  outdo 
his  predecessor  in  the  games  which  he  provided  for 
the  people  at  his  own  expense.  One  of  his  titles  was 
"high-priest  of  Asia,"  his  wife  also  being  "high- 
priestess."  One  monument  in  honor  of  one  of  these 
Asiarchs  mentions  the  troop  of  gladiators  which  had 
been  slaughtered  at  a  particular  show.  Altho  there 
was  only  one  Asiarch  in  office  at  any  one  time,  there 
must  have  been  many  ex-Asiarchs,  since  this  official 
was  changed  every  quadrennium ;  so  that  there  is  now 
hardly  any  need  of  explaining  the  Asiarchs  of  Acts 
19:  31  as  referring  to  a  problematical  "council"  of 
Asiarchs  at  Ephesus,  as  Sir  William  Ramsay  does.^ 

The  town  clerk  (yQa\i\iaTEvc,)  was  a  most  important 

'  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  "Asiarchs" ;  cf.  Journal  of  Hellenic 
Studies,  1910,  p.  261. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        467 

personage,  as  is  known  from  the  inscriptions.  He  was 
responsible  for  the  form  of  the  decrees  which  were  sub- 
mitted to  the  popular  assembly  and  helped  to  draft 
them;  he  sealed  such  decrees  with  the  public  seal;  he 
often  proposed  decrees  and  acted  as  chairman  at  popu- 
lar meetings,  which  meetings  were  commonly  held  in 
the  theater;  he  had  charge  of  the  money  bequeathed  to 
the  people;  in  fact,  he  was  so  great  a  man  that  events 
are  sometimes  dated  by  reference  to  the  year  when 
such  and  such  a  town  clerk  held  office. 

When  the  town  clerk  called  Ephesus  the  "temple- 
keeper"  (vecoxoQog)  of  Diana  he  is  using  the  exact  ex- 
pression used  in  various  inscriptions  where  the  city  is 
spoken  of  as  "temple-keeper  of  the  divine  emperor." 
The  local  color  of  the  Bible  narrative  can  be  vividly 
seen  by  comparing  with  Acts  19:27-35  an  inscription 
recently  dug  up  at  Ephesus  which  speaks  of  the  city  as : 

"The  first  and  greatest  metropolis  of  Asia  and  twice  temple- 
keeper  of  the  Emperors,  according  to  the  decrees  of  the  sacred 
assembly  and  temple-keeper  of  Artemis,"  etc/ 

In  an  inscription  found  in  the  Diana  temple,  ex- 
cavated in  19 10- 1 3  at  Sardis,  one  of  these  temple- 
keepers  is  mentioned  as  having  been  "treasurer  of  the 
kingdom."  The  title  Neokoros  is  the  same  as  that 
given  to  the  official  who  had  charge  of  the  Jewish  syna- 
gog  in  an  Egyptian  village  two  centuries  before  Christ, 
and  is  yet  the  current  title  in  Greece  for  the  sacristan 
of  an  orthodox  church  or  Jewish  synagog.^ 

There  were  twelve  temple  wardens  in  the  Ephesian 

'  Greek  text  published  in  Forschungen  in  Ephesos,  II,  163. 

*So  Reinach,   quoted   by   Moulton   and    Milligan   under   veCOXOQO?   in 
their  Vocabulary  given  in  the  London  Expositor. 


468     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

temple,  two  being  constantly  in  service,  the  term  of 
ofiice  being  two  months  each.  One  inscription  declares 
that  both  of  these  were  required  to  accompany  proces- 
sions in  order  to  see  that  the  sacred  images  got  safely 
to  and  from  the  temple.  They  were  required  to  be  pres- 
ent also  w4ien  the  images  were  cleaned ;  they  had  charge 
of  the  sacrifices ;  they  were  treasurers  of  certain  temple 
funds  and  took  the  fines  due  to  the  goddess;  they  had 
general  charge  of  the  temple  and  temple  repairs.  In 
addition  to  this  one  of  these  is  mentioned  as  "chairman 
of  the  board  of  corn  commissioners."  It  is  an  interest- 
ing fact  that  they  were  elected  or  confirmed  by  a  state 
assembly  called  ''ekklesia."  ^  The  shout  of  the  mob, 
''Great  is  Diana  (Artemis) !"  is  now  shown  to  have 
been  a  common  formula  in  the  Artemis  worship. 

Artemis  is  mentioned  in  every  inscription,  being 
sometimes  called  the  "saviour  goddess."  Her  image, 
which  according  to  tradition  had  fallen  from  heaven 
(Acts  19:  35),  was  probably  an  aerolite  which  had  been 
roughly  shaped  into  a  mummy  form,  sometimes 
pictured  as  a  many-breasted,  hideous  idol.  It  is 
better  known  than  almost  any  other  ancient  image.  She 
was  adored  as  the  mother  of  life  and  nourisher  of  all 
the  creatures  of  the  earth,  air,  and  sea. 

During  the  years  1904- 1905,  Mr.  D.  G.  Hogarth 
excavated  at  Ephesus.  On  the  site  of  the  old  temple 
he  found  two  beautifully  carved  heads  and  some  minor 
fragments  of  sculpture,  and  below  the  remains  of  the 
sixth  century  temple  he  uncovered  the  foundations  of 
a  much  smaller  temple  built  of  yellow  limestone.  Over 
2,000  small  dedicatory  gifts  were  brought  to  light,  as  well 
as  the  greatest  treasure-trove  ever  discovered  here,  con- 

^  Hicks,  op.  cit.,  DLXXIX. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        469 

sisting  of  some  four  thousand  objects,  including  brace- 
lets, charms,  brooches,  pendants,  and  other  objects  in 
bronze,  ivory,  crystal,  glass,  paste,  enameled  wood,  iron, 
and  terra-cotta,  besides  at  least  a  thousand  articles  in 
gold  and  electrum. 

The  story  of  the  finding  of  this  ancient  hoard  reads 
like  a  romance.  Mr.  Hogarth  had  been  digging  for 
man}'-  weary  months  on  the  temple  site  without  finding 
anything  worth  reporting,  the  previous  excavator  hav- 
ing gotten,  as  it  seemed,  everything  worth  carrying 
ofif.  But  in  November,  1904,  he  came,  in  the  course  of 
his  work,  to  the  small  oblong  structure  which  Mr.  Wood 
had  denominated  the  "great  altar,"  and  decided,  since 
there  was  nothing  else  to  do,  to  examine  its  construc- 
tion. But  almost  the  first  blow  of  the  pick  revealed  a 
most  surprizing  fact.  The  supposed  altar  was  not 
marble,  but  was  merely  veneered  with  marble,  and  be- 
neath this  was  piled  countless  limestone  slabs  and  beds 
of  mortar,  and  in  each  bed  of  mortar  the  most  astonish- 
ing treasure.  Here  were  earrings  of  all  patterns, 
pieces  of  necklaces,  jeweled  hairpins  and  brooches, 
primitive  electrum  coins,  and  160  electrum  stars,  most 
of  the  artistic  work  being  of  the  finest  quality,  and  the 
whole  treasure  trove  evidently  coming  from  the  best 
era,  "the  Ionian  springtime"  of  Greek  art. 

What  did  this  mean?  Had  these  precious  things 
fallen  down,  in  some  way,  from  the  altar  where  they 
had  been  laid  as  votive  ofiferings?  No;  Mr.  Hogarth 
immediately  sensed  the  true  meaning  of  the  puzzle. 
These  were  the  ancient  "foundation  deposit"  made 
when  the  temple  was  first  built,  and  represented  the 
pedestal  on  which  the  divine  statue — which  the  wor- 
shipers   thought    had     "fallen     from    heaven"     (Acts 


470    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

19-  35) — "^vas  placed  as  on  a  throne/"  The  Egyptians 
made  their  foundation  deposits  under  the  main 
threshold  of  the  temple  or  under  the  corner-stone  or 
central  axis;  but  this  discovery  showed  that  the  Greeks 
made  their  richest  deposits  under  the  pedestal  which 
held  the  image  of  deity. 

The  weather  was  execrable,  but  the  diggers  groped 
for  jewels  waist  deep  in  water  and  slime,  beaten  with 
fierce  rains  and  cyclonic  winds,  while  Mr.  Hogarth,  sick 
tho  he  was,  rejoiced  daily  at  such  discoveries  as  made 
the  world  of  scholars  gasp  as  they  read  of  them.  About 
the  pedestal  three  small  shrines  were  found,  many 
broken  vessels  used  in  the  worship,  and  vast  quantities 
of  votive  offerings,  together  with  scores  of  statuettes 
in  ivory,  bronze,  and  terra-cotta.  Perhaps  the  best 
prize  of  all  to  classical  scholars  was  the  discovery  of  a 
thin  silver  plate  containing  the  earliest  record  of  ac- 
counts preserved  to  us  in  the  Greek  language  (550  B.C.) ; 
but  to  Bible  lovers  the  best  discovery  was  that  of  the 
many  statuettes  of  the  goddess,  representing  her  (cir. 
700  B.C.)  not  as  a  loathsome,  many-breasted  idol  but 
either  as  a  very  beautiful  woman  or  more  commonly  as 
a  mummy.  She  is  usually  represented  standing  stiffly 
with  feet  close  together,  swathed  from  feet  to  ankles 
in  mummy-like  wrappings,  sometimes  decorated  with 
figured  scenes,  sometimes  with  scales.  The  whole  front, 
from  throat  to  waist,  was  usually  covered  with  orna- 
mental pendant  breasts  (suggesting  fulness  of  life), 
and  the  arms  were  extended  from  the  elbow.  Behind 
the  head  a  sort  of  nimbus  was  pictured,  and  sometimes, 
tho  rarely,  stags  were  placed  on  either  side.  As  early 
as  the  fifth  century  before  Christ  the  seated  Mother  and 

"  Compare  the  foundations  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  Rev.  21 :  10-20. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        471 

Child  was  a  common  representation.     Not  one  figure 
of  the  many-breasted  type  was  found/^ 

The  most  important  excavations,  however,  at 
Ephesus  were  those  by  the  Austrians,  which  began  in 
November,  1897,  and  were  carried  on  continuously  for 
sixteen  years.  In  the  great  work  to  which  we  have 
previously  referred,  Drs.  Otto  Benndorf  and  Rudolf 
Heberdey,  assisted  by  a  large  number  of  distinguished 
scholars,  give  special  studies  of  the  topography  of  the 
district,  its  harbors,  mountains,  hills,  brooks,  etc.,  to- 
gether with  a  most  thorough  examination  of  the  ruins 
between  the  harbor  and  the  mountains,  where  the  old 
Hellenic  city  stood,  and  especially  of  the  great  theater 
which  Wood  had  hardly  touched.  They  thoroughly 
examined  the  circular  structure  called  the  *'tomb  of  St. 
Luke,"  finding  that  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  St.  Luke, 
but  was  an  ancient  pagan  edifice  altered  into  a  Chris- 
tian church.  They  also  examined  the  other  Christian 
monuments,  especially  the  celebrated  "double  church" — 
900  feet  long  by  100  feet  wide, — and  found  a  basilica  in 
the  western  part  of  the  ancient  building,  evidently  repre- 
senting the  large  church  of  St.  Mary  in  which  a  great 
church  council  was  held  a.d.  431,  the  edifice,  however, 
being  erected  at  least  a  century  earlier.  They  also  ex- 
cavated a  smaller  sixth  century  church  and  found  a  great 
treasure  of  wonderful  bronze  lamp  stands  and  a  frieze  of 
"hunting  Cupids"  so  fine  and  large  that  an  entire  room 
has  been  given  up  to  it  in  the  Vienna  Museum;  in 
addition  to  all  this  they  obtained  a  large  number  of 
priceless  statues,  among  which  was  one  of  the  finest 
bronze  statues  of  heroic  size  known  to  antiquity,  being 

"  Cf.  Hogarth,  Accidents  of  an  Antiquary's  Life,  1910;  British  Museum, 
Excavations  at  Ephesus,  1908;  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  XXIX,  p.  192. 


472     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

that  of  a  Greek  athlete  originally  dating  from  the  first 
century,  but  the  base  of  which  contains  a  dedication  to 
the  Emperor  Constantine/"  They  were  also  able  to 
publish  ninety  new  and  important  inscriptions;  their 
work  representing,  therefore,  as  the  editor  well  says, 
not  merely  a  few  "sheaves"  but  a  ''fresh  harvest," 
gathered  from  the  site  of  this  famous  city.  The  third 
volume  of  the  Austrian  excavator's  great  work  on  the 
sculptures  has  not  yet  appeared,  but  Dr.  W.  R.  Lethaby 
and  others  have  given  satisfactory  preliminary  state- 
ments of  results  in  the  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies}^ 

They  found  an  arched  roadway  nearly  half  a  mile 
long  running  from  the  harbor  to  the  theater,  lined  with 
monumental  buildings.  From  1864  to  1866  they 
thoroughly  explored  the  theater,  which  was  the  central 
object  in  the  ancient  city,  and  in  size  and  beauty  at 
least  equal  to  any  now  used  in  London  or  Paris.  Set 
up  against  the  mountain  which  was  utilized  in  order 
to  give  grandeur  to  its  architecture,  it  still  seems  mag- 
nificent even  in  its  ruins,  and  the  acoustics  are  so  per- 
fect that  even  a  whisper  can  be  heard  clear  back  to  the 
topmost  row  of  seats.  The  Austrians  have  minutely 
traced  the  changes  in  the  architecture  of  the  auditorium 
and  orchestra  during  the  centuries  even  down  to  the 
smallest  detail,  the  enlarging  of  a  door  or  the  change 
in  size  of  a  window.  The  reader  can  not  be  expected 
to  take  interest  in  more  than  the  general  statement  that 
this  theater  could  seat  nearly  25,000  people,  and  that  the 
orchestra  was  80  by  37  feet,  and  the  stage  about  20  feet 
deep  and  80  feet  long,  being  supported  by  26  round 

^0/>.  cit.,  I:  181-204;  cf.   Journal  of  Hel.  Studies,  XXIII,  p.  347-350. 

^»XX,    pp.    178-181;    XXXIII,    pp.    187-196;    XXXIV,    pp.    76-88; 
XXXVI,  pp.  25-35. 


r.WED  ROAD  FROM  THEATER  TO  TEMPLE,  EPHESUS 


SITE  OF  THE  TEMPLE  OF  DIANA,   EPHESUS 


AXCTENT  DOUBLE   CHURCH.  EPHESUS 


ANXIEXT   I.IIiKARY  BUILDING,  EPHESUS 


THEATER  AT  EPHESUS 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        473 

pillars  and  lo  square  piers.  During-  the  apostolic  era 
(a.d.  40-112)  the  stage  was  raised,  the  ornamentation 
enriched,  and  arched  entrances  constructed,  while  in  the 
parterre  the  old  wooden  ceilings  were  replaced  by 
beautiful  stonework,  the  footlights  were  rearranged, 
and  several  very  artistic  fagades  with  elegant  frescos 
were  erected  in  front  of  the  stage.  By  a.d.  66  the  work 
was  practically  completed.  In  the  lowest  of  the  sixty- 
six  tiers  of  seats  were  twelve  wonderful  marble 
thrones,  one  or  two  of  which  still  remain  almost  intact, 
presumably  having  been  erected  for  high  officials  or 
victors  in  the  games. 

In  front  of  the  great  theater  was  the  Serapion,  and 
on  its  west  side  the  Odeum,  or  lyric  theater,  correspond- 
ing to  our  music  hall.  Here  the  medical  doctors  came 
together  for  their  meetings,  as  we  know  by  the  four 
prizes  they  ofifered.  Here  also  the  guild  or  college  of 
schoolboys  appeared  on  festival  occasions  with  their 
teachers.  One  inscription  of  the  first  century  mentions 
the  death  of  a  pupil  of  one  of  the  celebrated  teachers  of 
Ephesus,  and  another  was  set  up  in  the  temple  at  the 
expense  of  his  pupils  in  honor  of  Soteros,  a  famous 
rhetorician.  The  school  of  Tyrannus  (Acts  19:9), 
where  Paul  gave  his  peripatetic  talks,  was  probably 
not  the  hall  of  a  sophist,  for  the  proud  sophists  would 
have  held  aloof  from  making  such  an  arrangement  with 
a  Jew;  but  must  have  been  the  room  of  an  elementary 
teacher,  who  according  to  custom  used  his  class-rooms 
only  twice  daily,  teaching  a  few  hours  in  the  early 
morning  and  a  little  while  in  the  afternoon.  Thus  the 
rooms  would  be  empty  and  very  suitable  for  such  work 
as  Paul  wanted  to  do,  especially  if,  as  was  customary. 


474    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

these  lecture  rooms  were  adjacent  to  the  street/^* 
The  inscriptions  give  many  points  which  ought  to  be 
interesting  to  the  Bible  student  as  he  reads  the  story 
of  Paul's  visit  to  Ephesus.  The  very  oldest  inscription 
of  all/^^  inscribed  on  a  block  of  blue-veined  marble,  deals 
with  the  rules  of  augury  with  reference  to  the  flying  of 
birds : 

"If  the  bird  is  flying  from  right  to  left,  if  it  settles  out  of  sight, 
it  is  lucky;  but  if  it  lift  up  the  left  wing,  then  whether  it  rises  or 
settles  out  of  sight,  it  is  unlucky.  But  if  the  bird  is  flying  from 
left  to  right,  should  it  settle  out  of  sight  in  a  straight  line,  it  is 
unlucky;  but  if  rearing  the  right  wing  it   .    .    ."  etc. 

How  vividly  this  brings  to  mind  the  great  bonfire 
in  which  Paul's  converts  that  had  practised  magical 
arts  ''brought  their  books  together  and  burned  them  in 
the  sight  of  all ;  and  they  counted  the  price  of  them  and 
found  it  50,000  pieces  of  silver.  So  mightily  grew  the 
word  of  the  Lord  and  prevailed."  ""  In  this  connection 
it  may  be  well  to  mention*  that  a  new  copy  of  the 
apocryphal  correspondence  of  Christ  with  Abgarus  has 
recently  been  found  by  the  Austrians  inscribed  as  a 
charm  on  the  lintel  of  a  Byzantine  house.^* 

Amid  the  multitude  of  dedications  to  emperors, 
honors  to  the  imperial  family,  to  public  bodies,  and  to 
distinguished  private  individuals,  certain  letters  appear, 
written  only  a  few  years  after  the  close  of  the  apostolic 
era,  and  the  names  of  certain  individuals  are  given  who 
offered  votive  gifts  to  Artemis  and  celebrated  the 
"mysteries   of   Dionysus"    at   the   very   era   when   the 


"="  Otto  Benndorf,  op.  c'lt.,  I,  p.  98. 
>^  Hicks,  No.  DCLXXVIII. 


""Acts  19:18-20;  cf.   also  Deissmann,  Light  from  the  Ancient  East, 
pp.  250-254. 

"  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  XX,  p.  79. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        475 

Ephesian  church  was  having  its  great  fight  with 
paganism.  These  comparatively  small  and  poor  relics 
are  far  more  valuable  to  us  than  the  elaborate  inscrip- 
tions which  were  most  prized  then.  Here  is  one  in- 
scription, however,  which  catches  the  attention,  for  it 
is  dedicated  "To  Artemis  of  Ephesus  and  Emperor 
C?esar  Nero  Trajan  Augustus";  the  Asiarch  who  in- 
scribed it,  speaks  of  Nero  as  the  "high  priest,  most 
mighty  father  of  his  country."  ^^ 

Another  Latin  inscription,  tho  written  in  Greek 
letters,  speaks  of  "Paullus  Fabius,  Pontifex  of  the 
brotherhood  of  Augustus   ...   of  Tiberius  Caesar."  ^^ 

Another  interesting  dedication  is  by  Hiero,  son  of 
Hiero,  "holy,  emperor-loving,"  who  during  his  term  in 
office  built  from  his  own  private  funds  a  certain  part  of 
the  theater,  dedicating  it  to  the  people."  These  gifts 
to  the  people  are  often  mentioned.  In  one  decree  three 
very  rich  men  who  had  shown  themselves  great  bene- 
factors to  the  city  in  time  of  famine  by  selling  wheat  at 
cost  are  granted  citizenship ;  ^^  in  another  case  a  golden 
crown  and  front  seats  at  all  the  games  is  voted  for  pub- 
lic services  to  a  Rhodian  whose  name  is  unfortunately 
gone.^^  In  a  number  of  cases  a  Dikast  or  judge,  who 
has  been  called  in  from  another  municipality  in  order 
to  decide  impartially  critical  cases  of  justice  and  has 
succeeded  in  his  generous  but  difficult  task,  is  voted 
special  honors.  Of  even  more  interest  to  the  Bible 
student  is  a  list,  engraved  on  a  marble  slab,  of  names  of 
those  who  in  Hadrian's  reign  had  celebrated  the  pagan 

*^  Rudolf  Heberdey  In  Forschungen  in  Ephesos,  Vol.  II,  p.  161. 

^' Ibid. ,11,  p.  115. 

"/&irf.,  11:157. 

*«  Hicks,  No.  CCCCLXI. 

^'Ibid.,  CCCCLXVI. 


476     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"mysteries";  a  text  in  which  an  athlete  is  said  to  have 
fought  three  fights,  for  two  of  which  he  was  crowned ;"" 
an  official  inscription  in  which  Juhus  Caesar  is  spoken 
of  as  the  "God  made  manifest  .  .  .  saviour  of  human 
Hfe" ;  and  the  dedication  in  which  Ephesus  is  spoken  of 
as  "temple-keeper  of  Diana"  (vecoxoQog  xfj^  'Aqt8|ai8o(;), 
thus  reproducing  the  exact  phrase  used  by  the  town 
clerk  in  his  celebrated  speech."^ 

The  "golden  crown"  so  often  mentioned  in  the 
Bible  was  one  of  the  highest  badges  of  honor  in  im- 
perial Rome.  Many  texts  occur  in  which  this  is  men- 
tioned, one  of  the  most  interesting  having  been  found 
by  Prof,  A.  H.  Sayce  a  few  years  ago  at  Antinoe. 
Palm  branches  and  a  Maltese  cross  appear  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  inscription,  which  seems  to  date  from  the 
fifth  century; 

"The  famous,  the  glorious  {lit.  "golden")  Erutheos  (?). 

"This  foremost  man  is  conspicuous  to  a  great  degree,  in  a 
golden  crown.  For  he  has  this  honor,  worthy  of  his  deeds,  from 
the  king  who  sent  him  afar  to  Thebes  .  .  .  upon  a  magnificent 
car  as  guardian  of  the  younger  Rome."  ^^ 

The  most  important  pagan  monument  is  without 
doubt  that  which  mentions  the  dedication  by  a  very 
wealthy  Ephesian,  Gains  Vibius,  in  the  very  year  in 
which  St.  John  is  supposed  to  have  died,  of  a  great 
number  of  statues  which  were  to  be  set  up  in  the 
temple  of  Diana;  a  monument  which  brings  us  into 
close  touch  with  the  "craftsmen"  whose  business  was 
interfered  with  by  Paul  (Acts  19:24).  It  certifies  to 
us  at  first  hand  the  truth  of  the  statement  of  Demetrius, 

*°  Cf.  2  Tim.,  4:7,8. 

"Acts  19:35. 

'^  Greek  text  in  Academy,  Feb.  2,  Aug.  22,  1900. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        477 

"Sirs,   ye   know   that   by   this   business   we   have    our 
wealth"  (Acts  19:  25). 

The  Austrians  were  fortunate  enough  to  find  the 
base  of  this  dedicatory  inscription,  on  which  the  donor 
is  given  all  his  titles,  and  the  enormous  amounts  of  his 
benefactions  are  properly  tabulated.  Omitting  a  few 
sentences  we  translate  this.  The  top  of  the  inscription 
is  written  in  Latin: 

"Gains  Vibiiis,  prefect  of  a  cohort  of  the  Astures  and  the 
Gallaeci,  tribune  of  the  XXII  legion,  deputy  of  the  province  of 
Mauretania  Tingitana  and  of  the  district  of  Belgica  [Belgium], 
has  at  his  own  expense  made  a  silver  statue  of  Diana  and  also 
two  silver  images,  one  of  the  city  of  Rome  and  one  of  the  senate, 
with  this  stipulation,  that  in  every  public  assembly  (ExxArjaia) 
they  shall  be  placed  on  pedestals,  for  the  dedication  of  which  he 
has  set  aside  to  the  senate  for  allotment  17,000  sestertia." 

If  correctly  transcribed  this  would  report  a  donation 
equal  to  about  $850,000;  yet  this  was  only  one  of  many 
gifts.  Immediately  below  this  on  the  same  stone  is 
another  dedication  in  Greek,  reading  much  as  the  above 
but  containing  the  heading  and  adding  a  few  more 
honorary  titles: 

"TO  ARTEMIS  OF  EPHESUS  AND  THE  EMPEROR- 
LOVING  COUNCIL  OF  THE  ELDERS 
OF  THE  EPHESIANS 

"Gains  Vibius,  son  of  Gains  Vofentina,  salutaris,  commis- 
sioner of  the  harbors  of  the  district  of  Sicily  and  commissioner  of 
the  grain  supply  of  the  people  of  Rome  .  .  .  caused  to  be  made 
out  of  his  own  private  funds  a  silver  Artemis  and  silver  images, 
one  of  Imperial  Rome  and  another  of  the  Senate,  which  he  dedi- 
cated to  be  erected  at  the  place  of  public  assembly  [Biblical, 
"church"]  upon  the  bases  as  the  arrangement  there  permits. 

"He  dedicated  also  for  the  portion  of  the  council  of  elders 
4,250  denarii.    .    .    . 


478     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"In  the  time  of  the  proconsul  Gains  Aquilla  Proclus,  recorder 
of  Tiberius  Claudius  Julian,  lover  of  emperor  and  fatherland." 

Many  other  inscriptions  exist  recording  the  gifts 
of  this  Hberal  Ephesian,  the  most  important  being  the 
one  transcribed  by  Hicks.^^  This  noble  memorial  con- 
sists of  a  series  of  public  documents  in  which  this 
Roman  knight  and  naturalized  citizen  of  Ephesus  in 
A.D.  104  dedicates  twenty-nine  images  in  the  first  case 
and  two  more  later,  nine  of  which,  weighing  from  three 
to  seven  pounds  apiece,  were  exceedingly  valuable, 
being  either  of  solid  gold  or  of  silver  overlaid  with 
gold.  Among  these  the  most  prominent  was  a  golden 
image  of  Diana  with  two  silver  stags  at  her  side.  In 
addition  to  this  he  donated  20,000  denarii,  the  annual 
income  of  which  at  9  per  cent,  interest  was  to  be 
spent  for  gifts  to  the  citizens,  temple  ministers,  etc.,  on 
the  goddess'  birthday.  The  manner  of  conveying  the 
images  to  and  from  the  theater  is  carefully  set  forth, 
and  with  great  definiteness  it  was  specified  what  should 
be  done  with  the  money,  even  down  to  items  respecting 
the  powder  used  to  clean  the  statues.  The  gifts  were 
to  be  divided  in  a  manner  specifically  stated  between 
1,200  picked  citizens,  twenty-three  choristers  who  took 
part  in  the  mysteries  of  Diana,  the  temple-keepers,  cer- 
tain priests,  a  priestess,  and  forty-nine  "boys" — the 
latter  probably  representing  sons  of  prominent  citizens 
who  were  being  instructed  in  the  temple  school  or  were 
candidates  for  the  priesthood.  These  "boys"  certainly 
held  a  rather  distinguished  position,  for  according  to 
one  of  the  recently  discovered  texts  they  had  a  place 
reserved  for  them  in  the  theater.     The  nine  most  im- 

""  Op.  cit..  pp.  127-142. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        479 

portant  images  consisted  of  the  golden  Artemis  men- 
tioned above,  a  silver  Artemis  with  torch,  silver  images 
of  the  Roman  senate,  knighthood,  people  of  Rome,  etc. 
Of  course,  these  votive  images  have  special  interest  for 
us  because  of  the  mention  in  the  Bible  narrative  of  the 
"silver  shrines  of  Diana"  (Acts  19:  24).  These 
"shrines"  were  not,  however,  mere  statuettes  of  the 
goddess,  but  were  probably  miniature  representations 
of  the  temple  shrine  which  were  sometimes  dedicated  to 
the  goddess  as  votive  offerings,  sometimes  doubtless 
kept  in  the  homes,  or  placed  in  graves  by  the  side  of 
the  dead.  Almost  all  of  the  silver  images  and  shrines 
have  disappeared,  having  been  made  of  such  precious 
metal  that  they  were  all  carried  off  when  the  temple 
was  captured;  but  in  the  old  temple  ruins  at  Ephesus 
some  terra-cotta  images  were  found,  archaic  in  style, 
representing  the  goddess  sitting  and  holding  an  infant 
in  her  arms,  while  numbers  of  marble  and  terra-cotta 
shrines  still  exist  where  the  goddess  is  seen  seated  in 
a  niche,  sometimes  alone,  sometimes  accompanied  by 
one  or  two  figures.  She  ordinarily  holds  in  one  hand 
the  tambourine,  in  the  other  a  cup,  while  beside  her  are 
one  or  two  lions;  occasionally  the  lion  serves  her  as  a 
footstool.  There  is  just  one  silver  statuette  of  Diana  in 
the  British  Museum,  but  it  did  not  come  from  Ephesus. 
A  few  ancient  Jewish  inscriptions  and  quite  a  num- 
ber of  Christian  inscriptions  have  been  recovered  at 
Ephesus.  One  very  curious  Christian  triumphal  text 
which  probably  dates  from  the  fourth  century  vividly 
shows  how  the  Christians  were  accustomed  to  treat 
these  Diana  images  after  they  came  into  power.  This 
tablet  was  found  just  east  of  the  magnificent  two- 
storied  library,  and  reads: 


48o    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"Having  taken  clown  a  deceiving  image  of  the  daemon  Artemis, 
Demeas  set  up  this  symbol  of  reality  (truth)  :  A  God  that  drives 
away  idols  and  a  cross  .  ,  .  victorious,  deathless  symbol  of 
Christ."  -* 


By  far  the  most  interesting  Jewish  inscription  is 
that  of  a  man  named  Julius,  a  physician.  Elsewhere 
we  learn  that  there  were  ten  of  these  public  physicians 
supported  by  the  city  at  Ephesus,  tho  it  is  peculiarly  in- 
teresting to  find  a  Jew  among  these  professional 
citizens  of  high  standing. 

The  early  Christian  churches  and  tombs,  which  con- 
trast so  modestly  with  the  proud  buildings  of  antiquity, 
speak  a  language  highly  impressive  even  in  their  ruins. 
Standing  in  the  midst  of  these  religious  edifices  dating 
from  the  second  to  the  fifth  century,  one  can  better  ap- 
preciate and  feel  "how  the  power  of  the  local  goddess 
was  broken  and  the  faith  of  the  Redeemer  began  its 
victorious,  absolute  reign"  (Benndorf). 

Crosses  are  everywhere.  It  is  only  by  the  cross  on 
the  tombstone  that  we  recognize  Prosdokimos,  who 
''with  good  fortune  founded  the  castle,"  as  a  Christian. 
One  ancient  Christian  prays  in  a  public  inscription  for 
the  protection  of  himself  and  house: 

"Oh  Lord,  help  thy  servant  .    .    .   and  his  son  and  all  hi? 

household.    Amen." 

Another  speaks  of  "Christian  kings"  and  of  the 
"party  of  the  green."  Still  another,  as  early  as 
Justinian,  mentions  the  "house  of  the  apostle  at 
Ephesus."  What  was  probably  the  most  important  of 
all  the  Christian  inscriptions  is,  unfortunately,  entirely 

"Benndorf,  op.  ctt.,  Vol.  I,  p.  103. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        481 

lost;  but  on  this  fine  stele  of  white  marble  there  are 
four  sunk  panels;  in  the  first  panel  appears  a  lion 
rushing  upon  a  man  who  defends  himself  with  a  club, 
and  in  the  third  panel  the  lion  fastening  upon  the  thigh 
of  the  man  who  lies  as  if  just  beaten  to  the  earth."^  Mr. 
Wood  thinks  this  represents  a  Christian  martyr.  It 
dates  from  the  second  Christian  century,  and  it  will  be  re- 
membered that  Polycarp,  who  lived  not  far  from  here, 
was  thrown  to  the  lions  a.d.  155  at  the  close  of  a 
gladiatorial  show. 

A  number  of  inscriptions  mention  the  Virgin  Mary, 
and  Sir  W.  M.  Ramsay  is  certain  that  the  worship  of 
the  Great  Mother  at  Ephesus  led  to  special  reverence 
for  the  virgin.^**  The  supposed  recent  discovery  in  a 
dream  of  the  House  of  the  Virgin  at  Ephesus  is,  of 
course,  absolutely  valueless;  but  the  "virginizing"  of 
Christianity  is  largely  due  to  the  influence  of  Ephesian 
thought,  and  Ephesus — "the  most  important  city  of 
Christianity  next  to  Jerusalem" — was  affected  largely 
by  the  ancient  reverence  for  the  "Great  Mother."  It 
was  not  so  much  due  to  the  residence  of  Mary  at 
Ephesus — which  is  not  very  thoroughly  proved — as  to 
the  ancient  cult  that  the  early  Christian  bishops  em- 
phasize the  "glory  of  the  female"  and  give  their  glowing 
panegyrics  of  the  "Mother  of  God."  ^^ 

One  inscription  of  peculiar  interest  to  the  Biblical 
student  exhibits  a  list  of  Ephesian  citizens  arranged 
according  to  their  tribes,  two  from  each  tribe,  repre- 
senting the  ancient  board  of  magistrates  in  Ephesus. 
This  list  begins  as  follows : 

*=  Hicks,  No.  DCLXX. 

^'Expositor,  XI,  413;  Pauline  and  Other  Studies,  pp.  125-158. 
"So  Ramsay,  Expositor,  XI,  401-413;  for  "Great  Mother"  see  especi- 
ally H.  A.  Strong,  The  Syrian  Goddess,  1913. 


482     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"i.  OF  THE  EPHESIAN  TRIBE. 

"Demetrius  son  of  Menophilus,  son  of  Tryphon,  of  the 
Thousand  Boreis ;  Thoas,  son  of  Dracontomenes,  of  the  Thousand 
Oinopes. 

"2.  OF  THE  AUGUSTAN  TRIBE,"  etc. 

Dr.  Hicks  dates  this  a.d.  50-60  and  thinks  it  most 
suggestive  that  the  very  man  who  at  this  exact  date  is 
mentioned  by  this  name  as  the  opponent  of  St.  Paul 
(Acts  19:  24)  is  here  found  as  president  of  this  great 
board  of  city  fathers.  Sir  WilHam  Ramsay  thinks 
Canon  Hicks  has  made  out  a  strong  case,  ahho  he  him- 
self prefers  a  slightly  later  date  for  the  inscription.^^ 

2.  Recent  Excavations  at  Athens 

Modern  Athens  is  more  beautiful  than  our  Wash- 
ington, and  the  ancient  Athens  of  St.  Paul's  day 
was  incomparably  more  glorious.  But  this  outwardly 
prosperous  city  was  in  New  Testament  times  inwardly 
decadent,  living  upon  the  memories  of  its  great  past, 
flippantly  pretending  to  the  most  eager  desire  for  new 
truth,  yet  lacking  both  the  spiritual  and  intellectual 
energy  of  the  past  which  it  sought  to  imitate.  A  "rest- 
less inquisitiveness  and  shallow  skepticism"  had  taken 
the  place  of  the  ancient  love  of  knowledge  and  moral 
earnestness.  Nero  had  just  been  crowned  emperor  at 
Rome  when  the  great  apostle  came  to  Athens,  and  dur- 
ing his  reign  many  of  the  ancient  monuments  were 
carried  from  this  city  to  the  imperial  capital.  It  has 
been  suggested  by  a  recent  writer  that  the  cargo  of 
bronze  and  marble  statues  foimd  at  the  bottom  of  the 

'^Expositor,  I,  401,  II,  1;  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  132,  145n; 
it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  name  Demetrius  was  a  very 
common  name,  five  occurring  in  one  list  of  Lycian  inscriptions.  Cf. 
Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  1914,  pp.  1-35. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        483 

sea  by  some  sponge  divers  in  1900  may  have  been 
destined  for  Nero's  palace. 

The  richness  of  discovery  at  Athens  has  been  so 
great  as  to  make  any  adequately  impressive  sketch  im- 
possible."^ 

As  early  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  Parthenon  had  been  well  studied  and  a  good  descrip- 
tion of  the  ruins  of  the  city  had  been  written ;  while  the 
topography  of  ancient  Athens  had  been  so  thoroughly 
examined  that  the  works  of  that  period  have  been  taken 
as  the  basis  of  the  epoch-making  work  of  Wilhelm 
Dorpfeld  and  others.  For  nearly  two  and  a  half  cen- 
turies Athens,  so  far  as  sculptures  are  concerned,  has 
been  the  El  Dorado  of  the  world.  There  is  not  a  capital 
in  Europe  which  has  not  been  enriched  by  this  spoiling 
of  the  Greeks ;  yet  there  exists  to-day  in  no  land  of  the 
earth  a  treasure  trove  of  art  equal  to  that  which  is  still 
to  be  found  in  Athens. 

It  is  true  that  Lord  Elgin  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  carried  off  to  England  all  the  art 
treasures  of  the  Acropolis  which  he  thought  worth  ex- 
porting, but  the  preservation  of  the  Parthenon,  the  most 
exquisitely  beautiful  building  ever  erected  by  man,  the 
remarkable  excavation  of  the  Acropolis  by  Dr.  P. 
Cavvadias,  with  its  astounding  results,  and  the  recent 
restoration  of  the  Propylaea  under  the  direction  of 
M.  Balanos,  have  permitted  Greece  to  save  for  herself 
her  choicest  jewels.  The  Athens  which  St.  Paul  knew 
has  been  largely  uncovered  within  the  last  two  genera- 

**  Probably  the  best  brief  statement  of  the  modern  excavations  on  the 
Acropolis  is  that  of  Prof.  Martin  L.  D'Ooge,  The  Acropolis  of  Athens, 
while  a  brilliant  resume  of  the  history  of  the  city  is  given  by  Prof.  Howard 
Crosby  Butler,  The  Story  of  Athens,  1902.  Our  plan  limits  us  to  such 
discoveries  as  illustrate  in  some  way  the  New  Testament  era  or  narrative. 


484     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

tions.  A  recent  visitor  has  vividly  described  the  things 
which  we  once  looked  at  together — things  that  Paul 
also  must  have  seen: 

"There  is  the  great  ancient  outdoor  theater  of 
Dionysus  built  into  the  south  slope  of  the  Acropolis.^" 
Would  Paul  perhaps  have  gone  to  see  a  play  by 
v^schylus?  Certainly  he  could  there  see  one  of  the 
ways  in  which  the  Athenian  people  thought  about  some 
of  the  great  problems  of  life.  There  is  the  recently  re- 
built stadium,  which  was  the  scene  of  the  Panathenaic 
games.  Certainly  Paul  may  have  gone  to  this,  for  he 
often  draws  illustrations  from  games.  There  is  the 
exquisitely  wrought  monument  of  Lysikrates,  who  once 
won  the  tripod  in  the  games  of  the  festival  of  Dionysus. 
There  is  the  'Tower  of  the  Winds,'  which  accommo- 
dated a  water  clock,  a  sun-dial,  and  a  weather-vane. 
It  is  decorated  with  figures  of  the  winds,  the  north 
wind  being  'a  cross-looking  old  man  in  a  heavy  cloak,' 
while  the  other  winds  are  as  suitably  represented.  Did 
Paul  perhaps  get  the  time  of  day  from  this  tower  in  the 
Roman  market-place?  There  is  the  platform  of  the 
Pnyx,  where  once  the  democratic  Ecclesia  of  the 
Ai^thenians  met  and  made  its  laws,  and  where  orators 
brought  their  causes  before  the  Athenian  people.^^ 
There  is  the  recently  excavated  street  of  tombs  that 
led  out  of  the  Greek  market-place.  There  is  the  splen- 
didly preserved  Theseum  which  was  probably  dedicated 
to  Hephaestus,  the  divine  smith,  who  was  worshiped 


*"  This  is  the  most  ancient  theater  in  the  world.  It  was  here  that  in  the 
fifth  century  B.C.,  the  drama  developed  out  of  the  religious  rites  used  in 
the  worship  of  the  god  Dionysus.  In  Paul's  day  Nero  built  a  new  stage 
to  the  theater. 

"  This  place  of  popular  assembly  was  very  thoroughly  excavated  1882, 
1883,  1911. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES         485 

by  artizans,  especially  by  metal  workers.  There  are  the 
ruins  of  the  Asclepieum,  a  temple  to  Asclepius,  the  god 
of  healing.  People  came  and  stayed  all  night  in  the 
temple  and  sometimes  were  cured  of  their  disease  by 
morning.  There  are  standing  several  columns  of  the 
colossal  temple  to  Olympian  Zeus.  This  temple  might 
specially  interest  Paul  because  much  of  it  was  built  by 
that  Syrian  ruler,  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  who  had  con- 
ducted such  terrible  persecutions  in  Jerusalem  with  the 
hope  of  inducing  the  Jews  to  accept  Greek  religion  and 
culture.  In  fact,  everywhere  one  looked  there  were 
temples  and  altars  to  various  gods,  and  standing  up  in 
splendor  above  them  all  were  the  temples  of  the 
Acropolis,  the  chief  of  which  was  the  Parthenon, 
adorned  with  marvelous  sculptures  and  enclosing  the 
colossal  statue  of  Athena,  the  goddess  of  wisdom. 
Among  these  temples  walked  Paul,  who  knew  himself 
to  be  a  temple  of  God."  ^^ 

Recent  excavations,  as  we  have  said,  have  thrown 
a  new  and  unexpected  light  on  the  art,  monuments,  and 
topography  of  the  ancient  city.  Five  foreign  schools  of 
archeology  established  in  Athens  and  directed  by 
eminent  scholars  have  assisted  the  Greek  government 
in  a  series  of  extraordinary  researches  centering  in 
Athens  but  extending  throughout  all  Greece.  The 
scope  of  our  discussion  does  not  permit  mention  of  the 
remarkable  results  obtained  by  the  Germans  at  Olympia, 
by  the  French  at  Delphi,  by  the  Greek  Archeological 
Society  at  Eleusis,  by  the  Americans  at  Heraium,  or 
the  other  important  excavations  at  Tiryns,  Mycenae, 
Sparta,  etc. 

Ever  since  Schliemann,  in   1868,  began  to  open  to 

*'  E.  D.  Wood,  Life  and  Ministry  of  Paul  the  Apostle,  1912,  pp.  129,  130. 


486     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

modern  eyes  these  ancient  wonders,  scarcely  a  year  has 
passed  without  some  unexpected  discovery  throwing 
Hght  upon  ancient  architecture,  art,  or  religion.  All  of 
this  assists  the  modern  scholar  to  get  the  proper  per- 
spective as  he  seeks  to  understand  the  conditions  under 
which  Christianity  arose — and  it  is  something  to  know 
that  these  discoveries  have  proved  that  "man  in  Hellas 
was  more  highly  civilized  before  history  than  when 
history  begins  to  record  his  state."  It  is  something  to 
stimulate  historic  imagination  to  be  able  to  read  the 
original  report  made  to  the  financial  Board  of  Control  at 
Athens  concerning  the  big  loan  which  had  been  made  in 
order  to  complete  building  the  Parthenon,  or  to  be  able 
to  sit  at  Eleusis  on  the  very  step  where  those  initiated 
into  the  mysteries  sat  when  they  looked  at  the  sacred 
drama.  It  throws  light  on  the  New  Testament  conditions 
to  read  the  records  of  cure  found  at  Epidauros  in  the 
ruins  of  the  ancient  temple  of  Asclepius  as  they  were 
written  down  by  grateful  devotees,  and  to  find  that  the 
priests  of  that  temple  also  sometimes  offered  surgical 
aid  to  the  worshipers  and  used  narcotics  or  anesthetics 
in  their  operations  f^  and  it  throws  light  on  the  triumphs 
of  early  Christianity  to  find  the  remains  of  a  fifth  cen- 
tury church  on  the  site  of  this  ancient  pagan  temple  of 
Asclepius  at  Athens. 

But  it  is  far  more  valuable  to  the  Bible  student  to 
walk  through  the  street  recently  uncovered  at  Athens 
and  look  at  the  ancient  Greek  houses,  very  unlike  the 
Roman  dwellings  uncovered  at  Pompeii;  or  to  visit  the 
ruins  of  the  ancient  Syrian  temples,  observing  how 
open  Athens  was  to  foreign  influence;  or  to  walk 
through  the  ancient  cemetery  of  Athens  and  the  splen- 

*•  Gardner,  in  Authority  and  Archcsology,  p.  264. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        487 

did  "Street  of  Tombs,"  where  many  monuments  were 
centuries  old  when  Paul  saw  them,  and  to  copy  from  one 
of  these,  as  the  writer  did  on  his  latest  visit,  the  inscrip- 
tion of  the  stranger  who  moved  from  Sunium  to  Athens 
and  after  a  life  of  prosperity  carved  in  elegant  and 
enduring  characters  his  remembrance  of  his  old  home: 

2QSIBI0S 
2Q2IBI0Y 
20YNIE02 

There  were  other  "strangers"  in  Athens  (Acts  17:  21) 
who  when  they  came  to  die  did  not  forget  their  native 
home. 

Yonder  in  the  Parthenon  you  can  still  see  the  place 
where  the  shields  once  hung  which  were  sent  here  as 
a  gift  by  Nero.  Yonder  at  the  foot  of  the  Areopagus 
is  the  Theseum,  the  best  preserved  antiquity  of  the 
Greek  world — the  very  building  which  was  before  the 
eyes  of  St.  Paul  when,  as  Luke  says,  his  spirit  was 
stirred  within  him.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  count- 
less temples  and  thousands  of  graven  images  that  he 
spoke  to  the  officials  of  this  university  city  about  the 
religious  "ignorance"  which  God  had  winked  at  in  the 
centuries  passed,  but  which  now  wise  men  ought  no 
longer  to  countenance. 

Yonder  is  the  theater  of  Dionysus,  which  could  hold 
30,000  people,  the  names  of  the  owners  of  some  of  the 
principal  seats  still  being  carved  upon  them.  And 
yonder,  making  our  modern  stadiums  look  poor  and 
cheap,  is  the  ancient  stadium,  seating  50,000,  the 
ancient  benches  having  only  recently  been  covered  with 
marble  by  a  Greek  citizen  at  a  cost  of  $500,000. 

And     yonder    between    the     Propylaea     and     the 


488    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Parthenon  may  yet  be  seen  the  spot  on  which  stood  the 
great  statue  of  Athena  made  by  Phidias,  a  statue  over 
60  feet  in  height,  the  point  of  whose  uphfted  lance  was 
for  centuries  the  landmark  to  approaching  boats. 

Shall  we  not  appreciate  the  circumstances  of  Paul's 
oration  better,  having  thus  put  ourselves  in  the  midst 
of  the  ancient  city?  If  not,  the  writer  has  failed  of  his 
purpose;  for  this  is  one  of  the  chief  contributions  of 
archeology,  that  it  permits  the  exercise  of  a  historic 
imagination  which  makes  the  ancient  past  to  live  again. 

It  is  a  most  suggestive  fact  that  while  these  un- 
rivaled discoveries  of  the  monuments  and  inscriptions 
of  the  ancient  world  have  in  scores  of  instances  cast 
discredit  upon  the  accuracy  of  classical  historians  and 
ancient  writers,  they  have  served  only  to  put  in  clearer 
light  the  remarkable  knowledge  and  scrupulous  exact- 
ness of  the  New  Testament  writers.  The  account  of 
Paul's  visit  to  Athens  sounds  to  modern  scholars  who 
are  best  acquainted  with  the  Athens  of  the  first  century 
like  the  report  of  an  eye  witness.  The  statement  of 
Luke  that  Paul's  soul  "was  irritated  at  the  sight  of  the 
idols  that  filled  the  city"  (Acts  17:  16)  has  been  illus- 
trated in  every  extensive  excavation  there;  countless 
idols  were  in  and  about  the  temples  at  which  he  must 
have  looked  as  he  spoke.  The  reference  to  "strangers" 
staying  in  Athens  who  "spent  their  time  in  nothing 
else,  but  either  to  tell  or  to  hear  some  new  thing" 
(Acts  17:21)  recalls  the  fact  that  the  university  of 
Athens  was  celebrated  throughout  all  the  world,  and 
that  students  gathered  there  from  every  civilized  land, 
while  the  whole  population  was  celebrated  for  this  very 
trait  of  loving  "novelty  of  argument."  ^* 

^  Cf.    Thucydides,  III,  38. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        489 

"The  Epicureans  were  sometimes  called  the  'garden 
philosophers'  because  their  lectures  were  given  in  the 
garden  of  Epicurus;  the  Stoics  frequented  the  Painted 
Porch  in  the  Agora,  and  it  was  here  in  the  market- 
place that  the  students  heard  the  informal  debates  which 
occurred  when  philosophers  of  different  schools  met. 
Into  this  university  circle  came  Paul  with  his  gospel, 
and  the  philosophers  'encountered  him'  just  as  they  did 
each  other.  But  they  saw  that  he  did  not  bear  the 
usual  university  stamp,  so  they  called  him  a  'babbler' 
or  a  'hanger-on'  or  a  'picker-up-of-learning's-crumbs.'  " 
The  meaning  of  this  strange  word  spermologos,  trans- 
lated "babbler"  in  our  version,  has  received  a  curious 
illustration  from  a  newly  recovered  papyrus  in  which 
it  is  applied  to  the  crumbs  and  scraps  thrown  out  in  the 
streets  to  the  dogs.  It  evidently  meant  to  these  learned 
Athenians  that  Paul,  notwithstanding  his  claims,  was 
not  an  original  philosopher  but  was  a  picker-up  of  cer- 
tain scraps  of  philosophy  which  had  been  thrown  away 
by  authorized  and  properly  educated  teachers.  This 
view  seems  very  superficial  when  we  remember  that 
one  of  the  men  most  competent  to  speak  has  recently 
declared  at  Cambridge  University  that  Paul  was  the 
only  thinker  who  has  added  anything  substantial  in  the 
last  2,200  years  to  the  philosophic  system  of  Aristotle: 
but  it  no  doubt  exprest  correctly  the  views  of  the 
university  men  in  Athens  who  listened  to  him.  Paul 
was  brought  for  his  teaching  "unto  the  Areopagus" 
(Acts  17:  19).  The  Areopagus  was,  in  ancient  times, 
a  judicial  council  of  Athens  which  held  its  meetings  on 
the  "hill  of  Mars,"  a  little  west  of  the  Acropolis,  which 
is  in  full  view  from  its  summit.  On  the  top  of  this  hill 
can  still  be  seen  the  rock  benches  on  which  the  Areo- 


490    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

pagites  sat  in  the  open  air,  and  the  two  great  rocks  on 
which  the  accused  prisoners  sat.  But  it  is  not  certain 
that  Paul  was  officially  tried  before  this  ancient  court. 
He  may  have  been  taken  to  this  place  as  the  most 
appropriate  spot  at  which  to  address  quietly  an  in- 
terested audience,  or  this  may  have  been  merely  an  in- 
formal inquiry  made  by  the  members  of  the  court  con- 
cerning his  teaching.  Yet  from  all  the  evidence  avail- 
able it  seems  certain  that  this  council  had  the  right  to 
pass  upon  the  qualifications  of  all  lecturers  either  in  the 
university  or  in  the  city,  and  the  official  arrest  of  this 
unauthorized  lecturer  is  by  no  means  impossible.  The 
apostle,  who  if  he  stood  on  the  top  of  the  hill  could  look 
over  the  entire  city,  with  the  Parthenon  and  Temple 
of  Augustus  so  near  that  his  voice  might  have  been 
heard  there,  begins  his  defense  with  a  compliment  to 
the  Athenians,  who  he  says  were  "very  religious" 
(Acts  17:  22),  since  they  not  only  revered  the  gods 
whom  they  knew,  but  when  an  unknown  deity  protected 
them  or  bestowed  upon  them  some  great  favor,  they 
would  then  put  up  an  inscription  in  honor  of  this  un- 
known benefactor.  Several  of  these  inscriptions  have 
been  found.  Such  dedications  were  not  peculiar  to 
Athens.  Dr.  Deissmann  has  published  a  picture  of  an 
altar  recently  found  at  Pergamum  containing  the  in- 
scription : 

"TO  THE  UNKNOWN  GODS." '' 

The  apostle  further  compliments  his  audience  by 
quoting  a  hymn  of  Cleanthes,  the  Stoic  philosopher, 
who  had  once  been  a  teacher  in  Athens.     The  passage 

''St.  Paul;  a  study  in  Social  and  Religious  History,  1912,  p.  262. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        491 

from  which  he  quotes  is  the  most  beautiful  in  the  entire 
hymn : 

"Oh  God,  most  glorious,  called  by  many  a  name, 
Nature's  great  King,  through  endless  years  the  same ; 
Omnipotence,  who  by  thy  just  decree 
Controllest  all,  hail  Zeus,  for  unto  thee 
Behoves  thy  creatures  in  all  lands  to  call. 
We  are  thy  children,  we  alone,  of  all 
On  earth's  broad  ways  that  wander  to  and  fro, 
Bearing  thy  image  wheresoe'r  we  go ; 
Wherefore  with  songs  of  praise  I  will  thy  power  forth- 
show."  2^ 

In  connection  with  this  the  words  of  that  older 
philosopher,  Epimenides,  whom  Paul  elsewhere  quotes 
(Titus  1 :  12),  ought  also  to  be  remembered: 

"A  grave  have  they  fashioned  for  thee,  O  Zeus,  highest  and 
greatest — the  Cretans,  always  liars,  evil  beasts,  idle  gluttons.  But 
thou  art  not  dead,  for  to  eternity  thou  livest  and  standest,  for  in 
thee  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being."  ^' 

In  the  midst  of  these  glories  of  architecture  and  art, 
only  just  revealed  to  us,  and  with  the  splendid  litera- 
ture of  ancient  Greece  in  our  memories,  it  stirs  our 
hearts  to  see  Paul  lifting  up  his  hands,  which  were 
pricked  and  roughened  with  his  daily  toil,  before  these 
representatives  of  the  best  learning  of  the  earth;  and 
we  rejoice  in  his  confidence  that  the  new  gospel  of 

"  Translation  of  Dr.  James  Adams  quoted  by  Dr.  E.  D.  Wood,  op.  cit., 
p.  135.  For  the  further  relation  of  this  speech  to  Greek  philosophy,  see 
Carl  Clemen,  Primitive  Christianity  (trans,  by  R.  G.  Nesbit),  1912,  pp. 
58-60.  For  the  fluctuation  of  opinion  concerning  the  influence  of  the 
Greek  world  on  St.  Paul,  see  Albert  Schweitzer,  Paul  and  his  Interpreters, 
1912. 

*'  Dr.  James  Hope  Moulton,  who  quotes  this  in  his  Religions  and 
Religion,  1913,  p.  46,  punctuates  Paul's  words  (Acts  17:28)  in  a  new  and 
attractive  way:  "For  in  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  (as 
even  some  of  your  own  poets  have  said),  for  we  are  also  his  offspring." 


492    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

purity  could  succeed  even  in  such  surroundings.  His 
confidence  was  vindicated,  for  there  came  a  time  when 
the  temple  of  Athena  and  even  the  Parthenon  became 
Christian  churches.  Vast  numbers  of  inscriptions  have 
been  gathered  in  and  around  Athens.  In  1896  Mr. 
Andrews  of  The  American  School  in  Athens  deciphered 
a  tablet,  with  the  help  of  the  nail  holes  by  which  the 
bronze  letters  had  been  affixt,  and  was  rewarded  for 
his  ingenuity  by  finding  that  it  was  a  dedication  in 
honof  of  Nero,  which  had  been  placed  in  the  Parthenon 
within  a  few  months  of  the  time  that  Paul  had  visited 
the  city.  Monuments  in  honor  of  almost  all  the  em- 
perors of  the  early  Christian  centuries  have  been  found, 
but  not  many  Christian  texts  of  great  importance. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  recent  discoveries  is  that 
of  a  tombstone  in  the  form  of  a  statuette  of  the  Good 
Shepherd,  in  which  Christ  is  represented  as  a  boy  carry- 
ing a  sheep  upon  his  shoulders  (a.d.  300),  the  design 
being  an  original  combination  of  the  two  types  ordi- 
narily found.^^ 

A  few  Jewish  memorials  have  been  recovered,  tho 
Jews  were  not  attracted  in  as  great  numbers  to  Athens, 
the  philosophical  center,  as  to  Corinth,  the  commercial 
center  of  Greece.  It  is  known  that  St.  Paul  disputed 
with  the  Jews  in  the  synagog  (Acts  17:  17),  and  it  has 
been  thought  by  some  scholars  that  the  site  of  this 
synagog  was  fixt  by  a  modern  discovery;  but  while 
this  is  doubtful,  it  is  interesting  to  find  the  modern 
Jewish  synagog  and  Jewish  quarter  close  to  the  Agora, 
,and  to  discover  in  Athens  a  number  of  gravestones 
.bearing  Jewish  inscriptions.  A  translation  of  one  of 
the  most  valuable  of  these,  which  illuminates  in  a  strik- 

'^  American  Journal  of  Archceology,  XX,  624. 


ST.   PAUL'S   GATE,  TARSUS 


OLDEST   PICTURES   OF   ST.    PAUL 

AND   ST.   PETER 

(2urt   or   3rd  Century) 

From  Marucchi,   "Elements  d'archeologie 

chretienne."   I,   330 


PICTURE  OF   ST.    PAUL   (4th  Century) 
From  the  catacomb  of  Domitilla 


PICTURES  OF  ST.  PETER 

AND  ST.   PAUL 

From  Jfpdals  and  Early  Communion 

Glasses 


\]i:\V   ()J-    JlIK   RIVER   CYDNUS,   TARSUS 


RUINS  OF  THE  TEMPLE  OF  APOLLO  AND  THE  ACROPOLIS,  CORINTH 


4b. 


?»'' 


% 


% 




iMT 

^' 

i 

J, 

'^ 

"'■, 

Ai 


GENERAL   VIEW   OF   LATE   EXCAVATIONS    AT   CORINTH 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        493 

ing  manner  the  bloody  spirit  of  the  age,  may  close  our 
survey  of  this  famous  Biblical  city : 

"I  invoke  and  implore  the  most  high  God,  the  lord  of  the 
spirits  and  of  the  flesh,  against  those  who  by  treachery  slew  and 
poisoned  the  wretched  Marthina  before  her  time,  shedding  her 
innocent  blood  unjustly,  that  it  be  so  with  them  that  slew  her  or 
poisoned  her,  and  with  their  children.  O  Lord,  that  seest  all 
things,  and  the  angels  of  God  (i.e.,  God),  to  whom  every  soul 
humbles  itself  with  supplication,  (I  beseech  thee)  that  thou  avenge 
the  innocent  blood  and  that  most  speedily." 

A  pair  of  hands  engraved  on  this  stele  is  the  not 
unusual  symbol  of  invocation  for  divine  help,  even  on 
pagan  gravestones. 

3.  Recent  Excavations  at  Corinth 

No  one  who  has  once  taken  the  journey  from  Athens 
to  Corinth  can  ever  forget  it.  The  traveler  can  still 
see  pieces  of  the  ancient  road,  leading  across  the 
isthmus,  along  which  ships  were  dragged  in  St.  Paul's 
day,  by  the  side  of  the  great  royal  highway  along  which 
the  ancient  caravans  traveled  from  the  city  of  culture 
to  the  city  of  commerce.  Nero  in  a.d.  Sy  began  cutting 
a  canal  through  this  isthmus,  but  the  project  was 
abandoned  until  modern  times,  when  it  was  finished  in 
1893.  The  modern  Corinth,  which  is  only  some  fifty 
miles  by  rail  from  Athens,  is  an  inferior  village  situated 
about  three  miles  away  from  the  site  of  the  older  town, 
which  was  completely  destroyed  by  an  earthquake  in 
1858. 

As  one  views  the  limestone  pavements  and  marble 
staircases  and  fragments  of  splendid  marble  ornaments, 
and  especially  as  he  stands  amid  the  mighty  pillars  of 
the  temple  of  Apollo  and  on  one  side  looks  out  upon  the 


494    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

gulf  and  on  the  other  sees  Acro-Corinth  rising  1,500 
feet  above  him,  and  farther  off,  a  higher  snow-capped 
peak  on  the  top  of  which  in  the  ancient  time  was  the 
temple  of  Aphrodite  with  all  its  horror  of  religious  pros- 
titution which  appealed  to  every  ancient  traveler,  one 
is  imprest  with  the  courage  of  that  Christian  Jew  who 
could  establish  himself  in  this  great  center  of  wealth 
and  expect  to  conquer  it  for  the  pure  but  lowly  Naza- 
rene.  It  is  suggestive  that  it  was  in  writing  to  this 
most  licentious  city  that  Paul  most  emphasized  his 
teaching  that  a  man's  body  was  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  a  member  of  Christ  (i  Cor.  3:  16;  6:  15,  16). 
It  appears  rather  suggestive  that  Paul  did  not  venture 
to  preach  here  until  he  had  received  a  special  revelation 
from  God  encouraging  him  (Acts  18:9,  10),  after 
which  he  made  this  his  missionary  base  for  nearly 
eighteen  months,  succeeding  in  a  remarkable  manner 
in  winning  some  of  the  leading  Jews,  including  Crispus, 
the  ruler  of  the  synagog ;  but  especially  having  a  multi- 
tude of  conversions  among  the  non-Jews  (Acts  18;  I 
Cor.  1 :  14-16;  16:  15). 

While  Paul  was  at  Corinth,  Gallio  was  appointed 
"governor"  (i.e.,  proconsul)  of  Achaia.  A  fragmentary 
inscription  recently  discovered  at  Delphi  contains  a 
letter  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  proving  that  the  ap- 
pointment of  this  Roman  official  fell  between  the  sum- 
mers of  A.D.  51  and  52.  This  shows  that  Paul  came 
to  Corinth  early  in  a.d.  50,  and  left  in  the  autumn  of 
A.D.  51,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  the  edict  of  Claudius 
expelling  the  Jews.^^^  Gallio  had  the  honor  of  estab- 
lishing as  a  precedent  the  right  of  the  Christians  to 
teach    their    doctrine    without    interference    from    the 

"'  See  American  Journal  of  ArchcEology,  XXVII,  1912,  p.  582. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        495 

Roman  law,  the  value  of  which  decision  to  the  early 
Christians  is  just  beginning  to  be  appreciated. 

It  was  in  Corinth  that  Paul  met  Aquila  and  Priscilla, 
who  had  been  expelled  from  Rome  with  other  Jews  in 
A.D.  50,  and  it  may  have  been  in  part  their  influence  and 
the  influence  of  this  great  cosmopolitan  center  which 
caused  Paul  to  mature  a  plan  for  evangelizing  Rome  and 
the  West.^^  Modern  discoveries  have  opened  up  to  us  the 
culture  and  vice  of  ancient  Corinth,  and  have  also  given 
us  many  monuments  mentioning  the  Isthmian  Games 
which  were  held  at  the  shrine  of  Poseidon,  a  little  north- 
east of  the  city — from  which  games  St.  Paul  may  have 
borrowed  some  of  the  figures  of  speech  used  in  his 
letter  to  the  Corinthians  (I  Cor.  9:24-26). 

A  recent  visitor,  who  has  the  rare  gift  of  historic 
imagination,  has  brought  vividly  before  our  eyes  those 
early  days,  big  with  promise,  spent  in  Corinth  by  Paul 
the  apostle.  "How  long  was  it  before  Aquila  dis- 
covered that  he  had  taken  into  his  shop  a  man  who  was 
active  with  his  mind  and  spirit  as  well  as  with  his 
hands?  When  did  he  discover  that  this  fellow  tent- 
maker  had  ideas  that  were  of  the  greatest  interest? 
How  many  talks  they  then  must  have  had  about  Jesus, 
the  Messiah,  as  they  worked  together  cutting  out  and 
sewing  up  the  heavy  tent-cloth.  And  in  the  evening  in 
the  home,  Priscilla,  the  Roman  wife  of  Aquila,  prob- 
ably became  as  deeply  interested  as  her  husband,  and 
soon  instead  of  one  Christian  in  Corinth  there  were 
three,  two  tent-makers  and  a  woman.  Could  they 
affect  the  wealthy,  wicked  city  of  Corinth  ?"  *** 

As  the  traveler  sits  amid  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of 

^  Ramsay,  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  Bible,  I,  482. 

*"  Wood,  Life  and  Ministry  of  Paul  the  Apostle,  1912,  p.  140. 


496     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Aphrodite,  once  the  temptress  of  the  nations,  where  a 
thousand  priestesses  are  said  to  have  sold  themselves 
in  the  name  of  religion,  and  looks  out  at  the  bay  and 
tries  to  locate  the  ancient  harbor  of  Cenchrea,  and 
climbs  the  hill  from  which  he  can  see  Salamis,  so 
famous  in  heroic  story,  and  rides  along  the  seacoast  to 
the  medical  springs  which  are  yet  visited  by  travelers 
from  distant  lands  because  of  the  value  of  the  baths, 
and  walks  among  the  enormous  blocks  and  into  the  un- 
derground subways  of  the  ancient  city,  stopping  oc- 
casionally to  work  out  the  meaning  of  an  ancient 
inscription,  and  then  turns  his  eyes  upon  the  wonderful 
fertile  plain  which  coasts  the  sea;  it  is  easy  to  close  his 
eyes  and  visualize  the  ancient  Corinth  in  its  imposing 
surroundings  as  St.  Paul  knew  it — and  the  difficulty 
of  the  task  of  converting  such  a  city  grows  upon  him." 
It  was  a  bustling,  money-loving  city,  and  St.  Paul 
knew  it  and  all  its  peculiarities  as  thoroughly  as  any 
of  us  know  the  city  in  which  we  have  spent  eighteen 
months  of  earnest  toil. 

Within  a  few  years  of  the  time  when  Paul  visited 
this  city  Nero  also  visited  it,  as  we  know  by  the  "ad- 
vent" coins  struck  in  his  honor,  and  also  by  an  inscrip- 
tion on  which  a  speech  which  the  emperor  made  is; 
immortalized  and  he  himself  given  divine  homage.^^ 
How  often  Nero  and  Paul — those  two  best-hated  men 
of  the  first  century — crossed  each  other's  track ! 

Altho  we  are  nearer  relatives  of  the  Greeks  than 

^  "At  Corinth,  besides  the  female  prostitutes  who  gave  their  gains  to  the 
temple,  there  were  also,  doubtless,  titled  ladies  who  occasionally  offered 
themselves  in  the  service  of  the  goddess.  In  Baalbec  every  maiden  was 
required  to  offer  herself  to  a  stranger  at  least  once  in  her  life  in  the  temple 
of  Ashtarte"  (Ency.  Ethics  and  Religion,  VI,  672-4). 

"  See  Deissmann,  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  pp.  358,  375. 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        497 

of  the  Semites,  yet  it  is  the  fact  that  Paul,  a  Jew,  lived 
in  this  place  which  makes  its  ruins  so  impressive.  The 
first  tentative  excavations  on  the  site  of  ancient  Corinth 
were  carried  on  by  Dr.  Dorpfeld  in  1886;  a  little 
more  was  done  by  J\Ir.  Skias  in  1892,  but  the  work 
which  proved  epoch-making  \vas  begun  in  the  spring  of 
1896  by  the  American  School  of  Classical  Studies  un- 
der the  superintendency  of  Dr.  Rufus  B.  Richardson, 
and  was  continued  almost  without  intermission  up  to 
19 1 3.  The  excavators  were  compelled  to  buy  the 
modern  village  and  displace  an  immense  amount  of 
debris  before  anything  of  value  could  be  reached;  yet 
within  a  year  they  had  dug  up  for  some  distance  an  en- 
tire street  of  the  ancient  city,  and  had  uncovered  the 
old  Greek  theater ;  within  two  years  they  had  discovered 
the  Peirene,  the  most  famous  fountain  of  the  ancient 
world,  and  had  cleared  the  hexostyle  temple  of  Apollo 
which  Dorpfeld  had  discovered  ten  years  before;  and 
w^ithin  three  years  their  discoveries  had  taken  first  rank 
among  all  the  splendid  excavations  carried  on  in  Greece 
during  the  present  generation.  In  fact,  they  had  been 
able  to  bring  to  light  in  that  time  most  of  the  "sights" 
of  Corinth  which  Pausanias,  "the  ancient  Baedeker,'*' 
who  visited  the  city  about  a  century  after  Paul,  had 
put  down  in  his  guide-book  as  the  places  most  worth 
seeing. 

The  Greek  theater  was  a  large  edifice,  rather 
cheaply  constructed,  semi-circular,  wnth  at  least  thirty- 
eight  tiers  of  seats,  but  this  w^as  replaced  in  Roman 
time  by  a  better  one  which  even  Pausanias  could  ad- 
mire. The  Peirene,  which  was  celebrated  five  centuries 
before  St.  Paul  was  born — Corinth  being  called  by 
Pindar  the  "Peirene  cit}^" — was  entirely  uncovered.    It 


498     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

was  placed  at  the  entrance  to  the  Agora  in  the  most 
prominent  place  in  the  entire  city,  and  was  so  well  pre- 
served that  the  main  conduit  of  the  old  fountain  still 
supplied  water  to  the  modern  village. 

In  1899  the  American  excavators  cleared  the 
Glauke,  another  famous  fountain,  even  better  preserved 
than  the  Peirene,  the  old  marble  lion-headed  spouts 
which  had  been  used  before  the  remodeling  of  the 
fountain  in  Roman  times  being  still  in  situ.  During  the 
next  year  they  cleared  the  market-place  and  entered  the 
Agora,  having  disclosed  its  magnificent  gateway  and 
found  just  inside  a  fine  series  of  colossal  statues  in 
Parian  marble,  part  of  the  ornamentation  of  the 
Propylsea,  which  was  practically  a  Roman  triumphal 
arch.  The  statues,  which  probably  date  from  the  time 
of  Marcus  Aurelius,  were  of  rather  poor  work,  but 
were,  perhaps,  intentionally  made  to  look  very  uncouth, 
for  they  represented  male  and  female  captives  and  were 
clothed  in  barbarous  style. 

By  1 90 1  the  excavators  had  been  able  to  uncover  a 
considerable  part  of  the  Romanized  city ;  to  open  out  the 
great  Hellenic  stoa,  over  350  feet  long,  which  was  stand- 
ing in  Paul's  day,  but  with  its  front  hidden  by  a  row  of 
vaulted  steps;  and  to  pile  up  such  a  vast  quantity  of 
lamps,  pottery,  terra-cotta  figurines,  and  old  Greek 
material  reaching  clear  back  to  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ,  that  a  museum  had  to  be  built  at  Old  Corinth  in 
which  to  store  the  new-found  treasures. 

Of  all  such  finds,  perhaps  the  enormous  quantity  of 
terra-cotta  figures  representing  human  and  animal  forms 
in  antique  style  were  the  most  curious.  Over  forty-four 
examples  of  a  horse  carrying  a  rider  came  from  the 
theater,  while  sixty-eight  standing  female  figures   of 


NEW  LIGHT  FROM  FAMOUS  CITIES        499 

Aphrodite,  dating  from  the  fifth  century  before  Christ, 
were  dug  up,  and  many  more  were  found  showing  the 
love-goddess  redining  or  else  seated  holding  a  dove  to  her 
bare  breast.  All  of  these  were  originally  painted  and 
must  have  stood  in  brilliant  rows  as  votive  offerings  in 
the  temple ;  one  life-size  statue  of  Artemis,  of  much  bet- 
ter work,  was  found.  The  god  of  wine  also  had  his  temple 
at  Corinth  and  some  suggestive  sculptures  were  re- 
covered— for  example,  the  statue  of  a  nymph  struggling 
to  free  herself  from  the  embraces  of  the  intoxicated  and 
leering  deity. 

A  few  works  of  art  of  less  importance  and  many 
valuable  vases  of  rare  type,  as  well  as  very  rich  topo- 
graphical information,  have  been  some  of  the  other 
results  accomplished  during  the  eighteen  years  of  ex- 
cavation ;  but  how  true  it  is  that  our  interest  in  Corinth 
is  almost  wholly  dependent  upon  its  relations  with  a 
maker  of  tent-cloth  whose  name  was  never  heard 
spoken  by  the  aristocrats  and  rich  merchants  of  the 
city! 

Inscriptions  in  Corinth  did  not  appear  as  plenteously 
as  at  Athens.  Omitting  the  Byzantine  inscriptions,  the 
excavators  found  only  about  sixty  Greek  inscriptions, 
with  an  even  smaller  number  of  Latin  ones,  during 
their  first  six  years  of  work.  Almost  all  of  these  dated 
from  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  by  Julius  Csesar  46  B.C. 
Was  this  due  to  the  fact  that  the  libraries  have  been 
destroyed,  or  were  the  people  "so  busy  making  money 
and  making  love  as  to  ignore  learning?"  A  few  words 
written  on  vases  and  jar  handles,  and  oblong  stamps 
are  about  all  that  have  been  recovered.  Very  few  of 
the  inscriptions  strike  fire  from  our  hearts  as  we  read 
them;  but  here  is  one  dating  from  Roman  times  that 


500     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

makes  our  nerves  tingle,  for  it  has  to  do  with  granting 
certain  honors  to  "Titus  .  .  ,  because  of  his  most 
noble  character."  ''^  On  another  grave  memorial, 
erected  in  honor  of  two  artists,  Diogenes  and  Hermo- 
laos — perhaps  the  very  men  who  made  the  sculptures 
for  the  Parthenon  of  Agrippa  in  Rome  27  b.c, — there 
is  claimed  for  these  men  either  a  very  ancient  and  noble 
ancestry  in  the  flesh  or  else  the  even  greater  honor 
that  their  work  reflects  the  spirit  of  the  Periclean 
age: 

'T  am  from  the  Attic  fatherland ; 

I  inherited  the  blood  of  Perikles. 

The  son  of  Hermolaos, 

My  name  is  Diogenes. 

...   set  for  me  in  Ephyre  near  to 
the  spring  Peirene." 

A  distinctly  Christian  inscription  was  cut  on  a 
large  block  of  white  marble  found  in  1899  at  the  top 
of  the  steps  leading  to  the  Propylsea: 

"Demetrios,  servant  of  Christ." 

The  man  may  have  been  a  bishop,  but  we  do  not  agree 
with  Professor  Powell  that  his  title  (boij^og  XQiato-D), 
makes  this  evident.^*  Very  few  Christian  epitaphs  were 
found,  but  some  most  impressive  inscriptions  had  to 
do  with  the  Jews. 

While  the  excavators  were  clearing  the  street  of 
shops  discovered  in  1898  on  the  main  road  of  the  city 
leading  to  the  port,  they  found  a  door  lintel  on  which 
was  written  in  ancient  Greek  letters : 

SYNAGOG  OF  THE,  HEBREWS. 

"  Cf.  Titus,  1  :  4  ;  2  Cor.  8 :  23 ;  12-18. 

"  See  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  XVIII,  64. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS   CITIES       501 

This  inscription  was  over  eighteen  inches  long  and 
the  height  of  the  letters  averaged  about  three  inches. 
It  dates  from  the  Imperial  period,  and  therefore  it  is 
"a  possibility  seriously  to  be  reckoned  with  that  we 
have  here  the  inscription  to  the  door  of  the  Corinthian 
synagog  mentioned  in  Acts  18:4,  in  which  St.  Paul 
preached"  (Deissmann). 

The  miserable  appearance  of  this  scrawl,  which  is 
without  ornament  of  any  kind  and  is  poorly  engraved, 
Dr.  Deissmann  considers  to  illustrate  well  the  low 
social  position  of  the  people  to  whom  Paul  at  first 
preached  {cf.  i  Cor,  1:26-31).  Altho  it  was  found  as 
they  were  excavating  the  finest  street  of  the  city,  and 
altho  another  piece  of  Hebrew  writing  was  found  not 
far  away,  it  seems  probable  that  this  block  had  been 
moved  from  its  original  position,  since  it  would  be 
almost  impossible  to  suppose  that  a  Jewish  synagog  had 
been  located  on  such  a  magnificent  boulevard.^^ 

When  we  remember  the  poverty  of  Paul's  friends  in 
Corinth  we  can  appreciate  better  the  letters  to  the 
Corinthians  with  their  emphasis  upon  eternal  values. 
Dr.  Deissmann  has  well  said:  "The  paean  of  love 
chanted  at  Ephesus  under  Nero  for  the  poor  saints  of 
Corinth,  has  not  perished  with  Corinth.  Annihilated 
forever,  the  magnificence  of  Nero's  Corinth  lies  buried 
to-day  beneath  silent  rubbish  mounds  and  green  vine- 
yards on  the  terraces  between  the  mass  of  the  Acro- 
corinthus  and  the  shore  of  the  gulf;  nothing  but  ruins, 
ghastly  remnants,  destruction.  The  words  of  that 
paean,  however,  have  outlasted  the  marble  and  the 
bronzes  of  the   Empire.    .    .    .   The   Corinthians,   who 

"  In  preparing  this  resume  of  the  work  at  Corinth  all  the  reports  made 
in  the  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies  (1897-1914)  have  been  freely  used,  as 
also  Mr.  A.  S.  Cooley's  short  article  in  Records  of  the  Past,  1902,  pp.  33-88. 


502     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

suffered  other  writings  of  St.   Paul  to  be  lost,   pre- 
served these."  *^ 

One  recent  discovery  not  yet  mentioned  is  of  more 
than  ordinary  importance.  In  1908  there  was  found 
at  Delphi  a  stone  in  which  Gallio  is  mentioned  as  pro- 
consul, which  shows,  according  to  Dr.  Deissmann,  that 
Gallio  entered  upon  hie  office  in  the  summer  of  a.d.  51, 
and  Paul  had  certainly  been  preaching  in  Corinth  some 
time  before  this.  Deissmann  thinks,  as  does  O.  Ploltz- 
mann,  that  the  text  of  Acts  implies  that  he  had  been 
in  Corinth  eighteen  months  before  Gallio  came.  In 
that  case  Paul  must  have  reached  the  city  at  least  as 
early  as  the  summer  of  a.d.  50 — which  is  at  variance 
with  most  chronologies.  Because  of  this  new  discovery 
Dr.  Barton  concludes  that  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 
was  written  from  Ephesus  toward  the  close  of  the  year 
A.D.  54,  or  near  the  beginning  of  a.d.  55.^^ 

4.  Recent  Excavations  at  Rome 
A  renaissance  of  archeological  study  began  in  Rome 
some  500  years  ago,  and  since  then  excavations  have 
been  carried  on  almost  without  intermission;  yet  never 
have  these  been  more  successful  than  in  the  last  four 
or  five  decades.  More  than  a  thousand  volumes  have 
been  written  based  upon  the  excavations  which  have 
been  made  since  1870;  yet  the  treasures  not  found  by 
the  archeologists  are  much  greater  than  those  which 
have  been  found.  When  Rosa  in  1866  uncovered  a 
lime  kiln  dating  from  the  middle  ages  filled  to  the  brim 
with  the  most  exquisite  works  of  art,  it  caused  a 
shudder  in  the  breast  of  every  one  interested  in  the 
golden  age  of  Rome.     The  discoveries  mentioned  in  a 

"  Op.  cit.,  p.  399. 

"Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  1914,  pp.  120-126. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       503 

synopsis  like  this  must  always  seem  to  many  less  won- 
derful than  those  which  have  been  omitted.  To  give 
even  a  hint  of  the  marvels  which  have  been  uncovered 
before  the  eyes  of  modern  archeologists  would  seem 
almost  impossible;  yet  while  we  recognize  the  im- 
possibility of  giving  more  than  an  impressionist  sketch 
of  these  most  recent  discoveries,  we  shall  attempt  the 
task,  and  enable  the  reader  to  visualize  the  conditions 
with  which  the  early  Christians  were  familiar,  tho 
omitting  everything  which  will  not  assist  the  historic 
imagination  to  reconstruct  the  ancient  past. 

In  1870  special  excavations  began,  the  most  spec- 
tacular discovery  that  year  being  the  remains  of  the 
house  supposed  to  be  that  of  Pudens,  a  famous  Roman 
of  the  apostolic  age  and  earliest  wealthy  patron  of  the 
Christians.  From  1872- 1889,  over  275,000,000  cubic 
feet  of  earth  were  excavated  for  building  purposes  in 
Rome,  and  in  the  course  of  this  civic  reconstruction  a 
vast  number  of  antiquities  were  discovered.  Of  the 
newly  found  articles  stored  in  the  capitol  the  Director 
mentions  2,360  lamps,  1,824  inscriptions,  yj  columns  of 
rare  marble,  405  works  of  art  in  bronze,  192  well-pre- 
served statues,  266  busts  and  heads — all  masterpieces 
of  art — besides  over  700  gems,  36,679  coins,  etc. 
Libraries  have  been  written  on  the  exquisite  works  of 
art,  paintings  as  well  as  sculptures,  discovered  since 
1870.  On  Christmas  Eve,  1874 — to  mention  one  in- 
stance— Professor  Lanciani  found  lying  on  the  marble 
floor  in  one  room  just  uncovered  a  remarkable  portrait 
bust  of  Commodus,  flanked  by  two  tritons  or  marine 
centaurs,  and  by  two  beautiful  statues  representing 
either  the  two  maiden  daughters  of  Danaos  or  two  of 
the  Muses,     He  found  also  the  "Venus  Lamiana,"  a 


504     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

head  of  Diana,  a  Bacchus  of  semi-colossal  size,  with 
drapery  of  gilt  bronze  (missing),  and  about  twenty- 
five  exquisite  fragments,  legs,  arms,  hands,  feet,  etc., 
belonging  to  statues  whose  drapery  was  likewise  of 
bronze."^ 

During  this  period  the  Forum  was  excavated  from 
end  to  end,  as  well  as  the  Sacra  Via,  baths  of  Caracalla, 
stadium  of  I)omitian,  and  a  greater  portion  of  the 
palace  of  the  Caesars.  Among  other  famous  works  of 
art  found  in  these  researches  were  the  two  bronze 
athletes  uncovered  on  the  slope  of  the  Quirinal  hill, 
the  bronze  Bacchus  of  the  Tiber,  the  Juno  of  the 
Palatine,  and  many  statues  of  the  gods  and  wonderful 
bas-reliefs. 

In  1887  an  inscription  was  found,  particularly  in- 
teresting to  students  of  early  Christian  history,  in 
which  a  father  had  engraved  on  the  tomb  of  his  daugh- 
ter the  statement  that  she  was  "a.  pagan  among  the 
pagans  and  a  Christian  among  the  Christians" — per- 
haps suggesting  that  she  was  a  Christian  married  to 
a  heathen.  In  1881,  when  the  foundations  of  the 
English  Chapel  were  being  laid,  a  remarkable  collec- 
tion of  bronze  imperial  busts  was  found  piled  up  and 
concealed  in  a  subterranean  passage.  Between  1885 
and  1887  the  house  of  the  Symmachi  was  again 
thoroughly  searched,  yielding  a  broken  Victory,  the 
statue  having  been  smashed  into  over  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pieces,  probably  by  the  Christians  who  pillaged 
this  palace  in  the  fourth  century.  About  this  same 
date  the  tombs  of  the  Calpurnii,  which  had  received  the 
bodies  of  nobles  killed  by  Nero,  Caligula,  etc.,  were 
exhaustively  excavated,  yielding  the  richest  and  most 

*^  Rodolfo  Lanciani,  Ruins  and  Excavations  in  Ancient  Rome,  pp.  407-8. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       505 

important  discoveries  for  several  decades.  Within  the 
next  ten  years  Cicero's  villa,  probahly,  the  house  of 
Pliny  the  younger,  and  many  wonderful  tombs  were 
discovered,  including  the  supposed  grave  of  Seneca 
on  the  Appian  Way,  as  well  as  that  of  the  bald  and 
wealthy  shoemaker  who  had  the  instruments  of  his 
trade  carved  on  his  funeral  monument;  and  the  grave- 
yard near  the  Coliseum  dating  from  the  seventh  cen- 
tury was  uncovered,  where  one  tomb  was  found  on  which 
was  carved  the  warning,  'AVhosoever  shall  violate  or 
injure  this  tomb,  may  he  share  the  fate  of  Judas." 

Perhaps  the  most  important  single  discoveries  since 
1900  have  been  those  connected  with  the  ancient  tem- 
ples of  Rome,  and  of  these  none  were  more  important 
than  those  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Dolichenus,  the 
Syrian  Adadus  on  the  Janiculum,  the  triangular  altar 
of  which  was  found  still  standing  in  its  central  chapel. 
This  chapel  was  surrounded  by  five  or  six  others,  in  all 
of  which  triangular-shaped  altars  were  used.  One  of 
these  altars  discovered  February  6,  1909,  had  a  rim  or 
raised  border  as  if  to  prevent  the  blood  of  the  sacrifices 
from  dripping  from  it. 

It  was  found  that  the  Mithras  worship  was  closely 
associated  with  Jupiter  worship  at  least  as  early  as  the 
fourth  century.  Under  the  Jupiter  temple  above  men- 
tioned were  found  statues  of  such  gods  as  Bacchus, 
Isis,  etc.,  hidden  under  the  floor;  and  in  another  little 
receptacle  a  bronze  figure  of  an  unidentified  male 
divinity  about  which  is  coiled  a  serpent.  Several  egg 
shells  were  found  with  this  figure."^^  There  was 
also   discovered   right   under   the   feet   of  Jupiter-Baal 

^'^  Dr.  John  R.  Crawford,  of  Columbia  University,  writes  me:  "No  con- 
nection between  this  sanctuary  of  Syrian  divinities  and  Mithras  has  been 
proven." 


5o6     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

a  human  skull  hidden  in  a  place  carefully  prepared 
for  it.  This  may  have  been  one  of  the  emblems  used 
in  the  ''mysteries"  or  may  have  been  connected  with 
the  human  sacrifices  which  were  originally  a  part  of 
the  temple  consecration.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
in  the  twenty  Mithraic  sanctuaries  found  and  explored 
in  Rome  recently,  the  entrance  has  in  each  case  been 
carefully  concealed. 

Another  third  century  temple  of  Mithras  just  found 
under  the  Baths  of  Caracalla  measured  91  x  49  feet, 
and  contained  a  circular  font  and  two  lavatories,  a 
sacristy,  and  a  marble  statue  of  Venus  Urania.  Oppo- 
site the  font  were  niches  for  lamps.  Mithras  was  rep- 
resented in  the  frescoes  with  a  Phrygian  cap  on  his 
head  and  the  disc  in  his  hand,  and  in  one  fresco 
his  head  was  crowned  with  seven  rays  of  light.  The 
pictures  showed  the  god  with  the  raven  and  lion,  and 
gave  the  usual  relief  behind  the  altar  in  which  he  is 
represented  as  slaying  the  sacred  bull.  On  the  right 
of  the  altar  when  discovered  were  found  several  obla- 
tion bowls. *^  The  titles  of  the  deity  were  given  on  a 
tablet  nearby:  "Sungod,  the  Great,  God  of  the  Spirits, 
Saviour,  Giver  of  Riches,  Benefactor,"  etc. 

As  the  Mithras  worship  was  such  a  rival  of  the 
early  Christian  worship,  it  may  be  added  that  in  19 15 
there  was  opened  under  the  church  of  St.  Clement  at 
Rome,  and  made  accessible  to  visitors,  the  foundations 
of  a  temple  of  Mithras  built  during  the  reign  of 
Augustus.  The  sacred  font  was  found,  also  a  part  of 
the  altar  and  the  remains  of  ancient  sacrifices  which 
proved  to  be  wild  boars.^^ 

*'  Journal  of  the  British  Association,  1914,  pp.  15-36. 
^C.  R.  Acad.  Insc,  1915,  pp.  203-211. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       507 

In  1889-90  a  temple  of  Isis  was  uncovered,  showing 
the  figure  of  the  goddess  veiled  and  crowned  with 
poppies.  In  connection  with  this  a  wonderful  figure  of 
the  cow  Hathor  was  found  cut  out  of  spotted  granite. 
In  the  sacred  place  pieces  of  amethyst  columns  were 
found. 

The  temple  of  Asclepius,  recently  excavated,  con- 
tained a  curious  inscription  dating  a.d.  138,  which 
shows  the  prevalent  thought  of  heathen  worshipers  at 
this  period. 

"To  Valerius  Aper,  a  blind  soldier,  the  god  gave  command- 
ment to  come  and  take  the  blood  of  a  white  cock  along  with 
honey,  and  to  mix  together  an  eye  salve,  and  for  three  days  to 
anoint  the  eye  with  it.  And  he  received  his  sight  and  came  and 
gave  thanks  publicly  to  the  god."  ^^ 

Probably  no  spot  has  yielded  greater  treasure  than 
the  Forum  in  connection  with  these  modern  excava- 
tions. Explorations  here  had  been  begun  by  the  popes 
as  early  as  143 1,  and  had  been  continued  with  inter- 
missions to  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  the  French  Government  itself  made  extensive 
excavations  1811-14,  and  Pope  Leo  XII,  1824-35.  But 
it  was  in  1870  that  the  Italian  Government  began  a 
complete  clearing  of  the  Forum.  In  1888,  Otto  Richter 
discovered  the  remains  of  the  Triumphal  Arch  of 
Augustus;  and  in  1898  Giacomo  Boni  began  his  re- 
markable series  of  excavations  which  have  opened  to 
us  the  past  of  the  ancient  Forum  as  we  never  had 
hoped  to  know  it.  Perhaps  to  the  classical  scholar  the 
most  spectacular  discovery  has  been  that  of  a  monu- 
ment   very    doubtfully    recognized    as    the    cenotaph 

"  London  Expositor^  VII :  30. 


5o8     IHE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

and  national  monument  of  Romulus,  the  founder  of 
the  city;  but  to  the  Bible  student,  other  matters  are  at 
least  equally  important.  It  was  in  this  public  resort 
that  the  book-sellers,  fruit-venders,  fishmongers, 
usurers,  and  pickpockets  were  clustered  when  Paul 
walked  through  it.  Surely  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles 
must  have  been  interested  in  what  he  saw  there.  It 
was  on  this  Palatine  hill  nearby  that  St.  Paul  "un- 
doubtedly came  to  judgment"   (Marucchi). 

The  first  Christian  monument  to  be  erected  near  the 
Forum  was  the  Arch  of  Constantine,  after  which, 
as  Marucchi  well  phrases  it,  "the  cross  entered 
triumphantly  the  city  of  the  Caesars."  For  the  next 
century  the  emperors  diligently  cared  for  the  works  of 
art  in  the  Forum ;  but  Christianity  soon  began  to  appro- 
priate these,  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  Antiqua 
being  established  in  the  library  of  the  temple  of 
Augustus.  This  was  the  first  Christian  building  in 
the  Forum  (Marucchi).  Professor  Boni  in  1898  began 
digging  on  this  ancient  site  and  many  important  dis- 
coveries were  made.  The  church  was  found  to  have 
been  divided  into  three  naves  by  marble  columns  be- 
longing to  the  ancient  edifice,  and  its  walls  were 
covered  with  frescos  of  the  eighth  century.  Among 
the  earlier  remains  was  a  Christian  sarcophagus  found 
in  1 90 1,  dating  from  the  early  fourth  century.  The 
figures  carved  on  this  sarcophagus  are  most  interest- 
ing. Two  fishermen,  almost  naked,  hold  between  them 
a  net  containing  fish,  which  Marucchi  believes  to 
symbolize  the  apostles  as  fishers  of  men.^^  Next  to 
this   the  baptism   of   Christ   is   represented,   John   the 

*'' Yet    see    Charles    R.   Morey    in    Supplemental   Papers    of   American 
School  of  Classical  Studies,  1905,  pp.  148-156. 


A   UNIQUE  SEATED  STATUETTE  OF  CHRIST 

AS  A  YOUTH 

Reproduced  in  "American  Journal  of  Archseology,"   (1915,  p.   491) 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       509 

Baptist  standing  on  a  rock  and  Christ  being  shown  as 
a  httle  naked  boy  standing  in  the  stream,  with  the 
heavenly  dove  above  him. 

The  Good  Shepherd  is  next  shown  with  the  ram 
on  his  shoulders  and  two  sheep  standing  at  his  feet 
looking  up  at  him.  The  center  is  occupied  by  two 
figures,  the  deceased  and  his  wife  (the  latter  repre- 
sented as  an  orans),  the  faces  of  neither  being  yet 
finished — the  sarcophagus  having  perhaps  been  made 
previous  to  any  knowledge  of  what  Christian  should 
occupy  it.  Beyond  these  figures  is  an  extensive  and 
artistic  representation  of  Jonah  and  the  sea  monster. 
At  the  extreme  left  is  a  sea  divinity  holding  a  trident, 
which  may  be  here,  as  elsewhere,  a  disguised  form  of 
the  cross,  while  before  him  the  sea  is  lashed  into  fury 
and  a  ship  rides  the  waves  with  sails  unfurled.  The 
latter  is  a  new  symbolic  suggestion,  as  on  all  other 
sarcophagi  the  sails  are  fully  set.  This  is  undoubtedly 
a  survival  of  the  catacomb  type  of  symbolism.^^  It 
may  be  added  that  this  is  the  first  sarcophagus  to  show 
a  definite  separation  of  scenes,  and  probably  the  earliest 
to  show  a  picture  of  the  baptism  of  Christ.  Since  this 
important  discovery  the  Forum  has  yielded  nothing  for 
us  of  marked  interest,  unless  it  be  a  well-preserved 
private  dwelling  of  the  Republican  period  just  brought 
to  light,  and  the  systematic  exploration  of  the  houses 
of  Livia  and  the  palace  of  the  Flavian  emperors,  and 
several  beautiful  statues.^*  This  may  be  a  good  place 
to  mention  the  discovery  in  1907  of  the  marvelously 
artistic  bas-relief  of  Antinous  found  at  Canuvium,  the 
famous    statue    of    the    disc-thrower    found    at    Castel 

^Ntiovo  Bullettino  de  Arch,  cristiani,  1901,  pp.  206-216. 
"  See  particularly  Nuovo  Bullettino,  1914,  pp.  73,  74. 


5IO     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Porziano  in  1909,  and  the  remarkable  statuette  of  a 
seated  Christ,  reported  in  191 5. 

Next  to  the  Forum  the  baths  were  places  of 
public  resort,  and  many  masterpieces  of  Roman  art 
have  lately  been  found  in  the  baths  of  Diocletian  and 
Caracalla.  The  former  of  these  could  accommodate 
3,600  bathers  at  one  time  and  the  latter  as  many  as 
1,600.  There  were  besides  nine  other  large  public 
baths  from  as  early  as  a.d.  300  and  multitudes  of 
smaller  ones. 

During  1882- 1884  great  researches  began  on  the 
site  of  the  house  of  the  Vestal  Virgins,  and  these  have 
been  continued.  This  very  celebrated  institution, 
the  restoration  of  which  dates  from  a.d.  193-212,  is  now 
found  to  have  been  built  of  brick.  The  atrium  of  the 
house  measured  215  feet  long  by  78  feet  wide.  It  was 
elaborately  heated  by  a  system  of  hot-air  pipes,  and  some 
of  the  ancient  plumbing  and  a  large  section  of  the  fine 
old  mosaic  pavements,  of  geometric  pattern,  dating  from 
the  time  of  Julia  Domna,  have  been  discovered,  to- 
gether with  many  statues,  busts,  pedestals,  inscriptions, 
etc.  Some  of  the  furniture  of  the  house — including  the 
handmill  of  the  cook  in  the  kitchen — was  found  just 
where  it  was  left  when  the  house  of  the  Vestals  was 
destroyed  in  the  fourth  century  by  the  Christians. 
Professor  Lanciani,  who  was  connected  with  these 
later  excavations,  fortunately  found  fifteen  marble 
pedestals,  and  on  these  were  several  eulogistic  inscrip- 
tions celebrating  the  high  priestesses  of  Vesta.  Prob- 
ably for  us  the  most  important  of  these  is  the  one  in 
which  these  pagan  priests,  a.d.  364,  eulogized  one 
priestess  for  her  "chastity  and  profound  knowledge  in 
religious   matters,"  but  later   caused  her  name  to  be 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       511 

erased — either  because  of  a  moral  lapse,  or  more  likely, 
as  Professor  Lanciani  believes,  because  she  had  become 
a  Christian. 

The  house  of  the  Vestals  was  situated  at  the  foot  of 
the  Palatine  Hill,  which  was  the  most  sacred  place  in 
all  ancient  Rome,  on  which,  from  the  earliest  time,  the 
palaces  of  the  Caesars  stood.  In  our  lifetime  these 
palaces  have  been  dug  up  and  it  is  thought  that 
at  least  the  foundations  of  the  house  of  Augustus  have 
been  found.  We  can  now  examine  in  detail  the  plans 
of  the  palaces  of  Augustus,  Caligula,  Nero,  Domitian, 
and  the  Caesars  who  followed.  It  is  true  that  what  has 
been  found  poorly  represents  the  "Golden  House"  of 
Nero,  filled  with  hundreds  of  statues  from  Greece  and 
Asia  Minor,  with  its  world-famous  zoological  and 
botanical  gardens,  whose  waterfalls  were  supplied  by 
an  aqueduct  fifty  miles  long;  yet  some  important  relics 
of  these  ancient  wonders  have  been  discovered.  The 
throne-room  of  Domitian,  the  great  persecutor  of  the 
Christians — a  throne-room  measuring  160  x  120  feet, 
the  wall-paintings  of  which  show  its  ancient  splendor — 
has  been  brought  to  light,  and  a  beautifully  frescoed 
treasure  room.  It  is  even  more  remarkable  that  in  con- 
nection with  the  palace  of  Domitian  (or  Nero)  Dr. 
Boni  found  salt  water  fish-tanks,  where  unique 
varieties  of  fish  could  be  cultivated  for  the  royal  table; 
and  also  three  "elevators"  by  which  luggage  could  be 
lifted  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  of  the  palace.^'  This 
palace  was  originally  filled  with  the  costliest  works  of 
art,  and  many  exquisitely  cut  columns  and  capitals, 
in  many  colored  marbles,  have  come  to  light,  while  in 

"^  See  Journal  of  Roman  Studies,  1914,  p.  244^^.  Some  scholars  believe 
these  strange  constructions  to  be  connected  with  the  palace  sewerage;  but 
Boni's  view  seems  very  plausible. 


512     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

1888  remarkable  frescos  were  discovered  in  the 
dining-hall,  representing  the  butlers  and  waiters  lead- 
ing guests  to  the  banqueting  chambers  over  fifteen 
hundred  years  ago.  It  is  interesting  to  remember  that 
Domitian's  palace  received  its  water  supply  by  means 
of  a  powerful  syphon,  the  pipe  of  which  was  made  of 
solid  sheets  of  lead  and  measured  about  a  foot  in 
diameter.  This  remarkable  work  of  engineering, 
bringing  water  across  a  valley  over  130  feet  deep, 
was  put  into  the  palace  by  the  brother-in-law  of  Titus, 
A.D.  y}^.  Many  fragments  of  this  ancient  construction 
have  been  found,  and  in  the  palaces  of  Domitian  and 
Caligula  many  pictures  and  inscriptions  particularly 
interesting  for  the  light  they  throw  upon  the  early 
Christian  era  have  been  discovered.  In  one  of  the  so- 
called  "school-rooms"  attached  to  Caligula's  palace 
there  was  found  long  ago  a  remarkable  vignette  repre- 
senting a  donkey  turning  a  mill,  with  the  writing  of 
the  supposed  school-boy  above  it,  "Work,  work,  little 
donkey,  as  I  have  worked  myself." 

Attached  to  the  palace  of  the  Caesars  was  a 
"stadium"  used  as  a  great  sunken  garden — redecorated 
after  the  great  fire  a.d.  191 — which  was  dug  up  1892-3, 
on  the  walls  of  which  a  considerable  number  of 
scribblings  have  been  found,  most  of  which  come  from 
the  soldiers  stationed  there.  These  grafhti  are  traced 
with  a  pointed  instrument  and  interspersed  with  rough 
drawings,  among  which  a  helmet  and  a  boat  are  most 
recognizable.  Several  of  these  rough  barbaric  scrawls 
are  comical,  and  several  represent  individuals,  probably 
athletes ;  but  the  most  interesting  to  us  is  a  rough  sketch 
of  the  head  of  Nero  with  his  name  under  it.     Some  of 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       513 

the  scribblings  are  too  obscene  to  be  quoted,  but  one, 
rather  longer  and  better  than  the  rest,  reads : 

"I  desire  to  give  all  things  to  beautiful  gii'ls,  but  no  girl  from 
the  common  people  ever  pleases  me."  ^° 

Another  reads: 
"May  a  bear  eat  him  on  the  trackless  mountains." 

It  should  be  remembered  that  even  in  the  first  cen- 
tury "members  of  Csesar's  household"  had  become 
Christians,  and  there  can  not  be  the  slightest  doubt 
that  there  were  Christians  among  the  royal  pages  when 
these  scribblings  were  written. 

The  Colosseum,  which  in  magnificence  can  be  com- 
pared only  with  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  and  could  seat 
somewhere  between  45,000  and  87,000  spectators, 
was  known  from  the  earliest  times  and  was  rather 
carefully  excavated  by  Testa,  1864-5,  and  by  Rosa, 
1875-8.  In  1878  Professor  Lanciani  discovered  here 
the  bones  of  the  animals  which  had  been  used  in  the 
gladiatorial  shows  of  the  sixth  century.  The  shows 
of  that  time,  however,  were  tame  affairs  compared  with 
those  of  the  apostolic  era.  There  have  actually  been 
discovered  traces  of  the  more  ancient  dungeons  in 
which  the  wild  beasts  were  kept  which  tore  the  early 
Christians  to  pieces;  and  in  1874-5  the  floor  of  the  old 
arena  was  uncovered,  together  with  the  sockets  to 
which  the  windlasses  and  capstans  were  fixt  by  which 
the  cages  were  raised  to  the  level  of  the  trapdoors  of 
the  arena.  The  funeral  monuments  of  the  gladiators 
which  have  been  found  show  the  fierceness  of  the 
fighting  in  the  earlier  eras.     The  shows  were  so  pop- 

^"  See  Latin  text  of  this  and  others  in  Marucchi's  Roinaii  Forum,  pp. 
322-357. 


514     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ular  that  even  the  Emperor  Constantine  was  not  able 
to  stop  them,  and  as  late  as  a.d.  384-392  a  statue  was 
erected  near  here  to  John,  a  champion  fighter  of 
Jewish  or  Christian  origin,  by  the  Emperor  Theo- 
dosius.  Several  mosaics  have  been  found  giving  fight- 
ing scenes  and  many  inscriptions  eulogizing  the 
gladiators. 

No  picture  of  the  gladiatorial  combats  and  races 
in  the  circus  has  come  down  to  us  which  shows  in 
such  detail  the  surroundings  of  the  race-course  as  a 
colored  mosaic  from  Carthage  (first  century)  dis- 
covered in  191 5,  which  depicts  a  typical  race  with 
four  chariots  each  drawn  by  four  horses  and  all  going 
at  tremendous  speed,  the  whole  picture  being  brilliantly 
conceived  and  executed.  We  can  see  here  dimly  out- 
lined the  tiers  of  seats  occupied  by  the  common 
citizens,  but  the  official  stalls  are  plainly  indicated. 
One  official  is  also  represented  holding  out  to  the  suc- 
cessful contestant  the  grand  prize.  Whether  St.  Paul 
ever  saw  such  a  race  as  this  or  not,  there  can  be  no 
question  about  his  interest  in  the  race-course,  as 
proved  by  his  many  references  to  it  in  his  description  of 
the  Christian  life." 

It  may  be  added  that  no  amphitheater  in  Rome  is 
as  well  preserved  as  the  one  lately  dug  up  at  Pompeii 
(1914).  It  was  buried  by  what  seems  to  have  been 
a  gigantic  landslide,  and  is  almost  intact.  Pro- 
fessor Spinazzola  reports  that  even  the  celebrated 
Greek  theater  at  Syracuse  is  nothing  when  com- 
pared with  this.  "Every  seat,  every  wall,  the  actors' 
rooms,    the    subterranean    passages,    the    wild    beasts' 

"  For  a  very  full  and  accurate  examination  of  the  Roman  theater  (audi- 
torium, stage,  costumes,  actors,  etc.),  see  Art  and  Archceology,  1915;  for 
the  picture  referred  to  above  see  Revue  Archcologiquc,  1916,  p.  249. 


ANCIENT  CHARIOT  RACE 
From  "Rovup  Arrlipnlngique."   (1916,   p.   249) 


CHRISTIAN   BAS-KKl.ll.l 
Afiisec  du  Bardo 


PAGAN  PRIESTESS 
JIust'e  Lavigeric 


FRAGMENTS  FROM  THE  ANCIENT  TEMPLE  OF  FERGAMUM 
From  Julius  Lessing 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       515 

dens,  are  all  in  perfect  preservation.  The  frescos 
adorning  the  walls  and  the  epigrams  of  witty 
visitors  carved  on  the  marble  rails  of  the  balconies 
are  now  coming  to  light."  As  a  villa  of  Cicero  was 
nearby,  he  must  have  attended  plays  in  this  theater.  St. 
Paul  on  his  way  to  Rome  stopt  for  a  week  within  a 
short  walk  of  the  town  where  this  theater  was  located. 

Many  Christian  inscriptions  have  been  found  at 
Rome,  but  most  of  these  came  from  the  catacombs 
which  we  have  previously  described.  De  Rossi  knew 
of  forty-eight  inscriptions  earlier  than  Constantine  and 
about  one  hundred  and  forty  which  dated  from  the 
Constantine  era;^  but  since  his  day  many  hundreds 
have  been  discovered  and  some*  very  remarkable 
Christian  monuments.  One  of  the  most  interesting  of 
these  is  an  ancient  crypt  dedicated  to  Gabriel,  the  arch- 
angel, covered  with  frescos  representing  Gabriel  with 
his  hands  in  the  attitude  of  prayer,  and  showing  the 
Redeemer  among  hosts  of  angels.  This,  however,  is 
rather  late  in  date  and  can  not  be  compared  in  value 
with  the  earlier  discovery  of  a  cubiculum  covered  with 
paintings  of  Biblical  scenes.  The  Good  Shepherd, 
Moses  striking  the  rock,  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  the 
feeding  of  the  five  thousand,  Daniel  in  the  den  of 
lions,  and  Noah  and  the  ark  are  among  the  narratives 
illustrated.  This  was  the  place  in  Rome  where  for- 
eigners were  buried,  and  Lanciani  believes  that  the 
crypt  adorned  with  Christian  paintings  must  date  as 
early  as  the  third  century. 

The  Jewish  inscriptions  in  Rome  are  very  numerous. 
The  one  best-known  monument  representing  the  Jews  is 
probably  the  Arch  of  Titus,  which  shows  in  its  bas- 

^^  Inscrlpt'iones  clmstiani  Urbis  Romae,  1857-1861. 


5i6     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

reliefs  the  triumphal  processions  in  which  they 
marched  as  captives,  and  here  the  seven-branched 
candlestick  is  prominently  delineated  among  the  objects 
captured.  The  Jews  in  Rome,  however,  from  the  second 
century  before  Christ  to  the  time  of  their  expulsion  by 
Claudius,  represented  an  influential  section  of  the  popu- 
lation.^^ The  richer  Jews  lived  in  aristocratic  quarters 
of  the  city,  but  the  poor  people  clustered  mostly  in  the 
southwest  across  the  Tiber  on  the  outer  edge  of  the 
city  among  the  slums  of  the  Trastevere.  A  consider- 
able district  here  was  given  up  to  foreigners,  and  in 
it  all  kinds  of  religious  worship  were  permitted.  The 
ghetto  was  in  the  vicinity  of  the  harbor,  a  ward  in- 
fested by  foreign  sailors  and  pickpockets.  There  were 
landings  in  the  harbor  set  apart  for  dealers  in  marble, 
wine,  oil,  fish,  timber,  iron,  salt,  brick,  cattle,  etc.  In 
1892  a  tablet  was  discovered  which  had  been  erected  in 
memory  of  a  man  named  Terens,  who  is  said  to  have 
been  a  ''most  famous  importer  of  pigs  and  sheep." 
There  was  a  special  wharf  for  the  Egyptian  grain 
fleet  running  between  Rome  and  Alexandria.  Grain  was 
one  of  the  chief  monopolies  of  the  government,  and  it 
transported  annually  144,000,000  bushels  of  this 
precious  necessity  of  life.  A  bas-relief  lately  discovered 
represents  the  unloading  of  one  of  these  ships.  In  this 
disagreeable  ghetto — celebrated  in  classical  literature 
for  its  narrow,  muddy  streets  and  numerous  beggars 
and  its  wreaths  of  violets  and  countless  little  lamps 
which  on  feast  days  dropt  grease  and  soot  on  the 
passers-by — the  Jewish  schools,  law  courts,  and  central 
synagog   were   situated.      There   were,   however,    nine 

^'See  especially  Max  Raden,  The  Jews  Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
1915,  chap,  xvi ;  and  Jean  Juster,  Les  Juives  dans  I' Empire  Remain,  2  vols., 
1914. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       517 

other  synagogs  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  one  of 
these  being  located,  as  we  know  from  its  name,  in  the 
Campus  Martins.*'" 

The  cemeteries  also  prove  that  the  Jews  over- 
flowed from  the  Trastevere  not  only  along  the  wharfs 
where  the  boats  from  Ostia  were  being  unloaded 
(Martial),  but  out  into  the  Appian  Way,  for  as  many 
as  three  cemeteries  have  been  found  on  or  near  this 
central  highway.  Indeed,  while  these  Jewish  peddlers 
and  rag-pickers  and  dealers  in  broken  glass  and  cast- 
off  clothing  itinerated  everywhere,  they  must  especially 
have  enjoyed  mingling  with  the  throngs  on  this  great 
thoroughfare;  and  we  also  read  in  the  classics  of  the 
bazaars  which  they  had  built  on  the  Via  Portuensis. 
It  must  have  been  in  one  of  these  poorer  centers,  full 
of  low-priced  lodgings,  where  his  fellow  Jews  were 
working  at  cobbling  and  tent-making  and  the  manu- 
facture of  scourges,  that  St.  Paul  obtained  his 
"hired  house,"  joining  with  these  day  laborers  in  eating 
"mouldy  bread  and  ill-looking  cabbage  soaked  in  lamp 
oil  and  drinking  .poor  wine  from  a  cracked  glass" 
(Abbe  Fouard). 

St.  Paul  may  have  known  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  some  of  the  people  whose  inscriptions  have  come  to 
us  from  the  cemeteries.  There  are  119  of  these  in- 
scriptions coming  from  the  one  cemetery  in  the  Via 
Portuensis,  which  was  carefully  explored  through  the 
generosity  of  Pellegrini  Quarantotto,  the  owner,  in 
1904-5.  Pictures  of  the  seven-branched  candlestick  and 
of  the  dove  are  carved  on  the  tombs,  and  the  names  of 

^  For  a  very  thorough  discussion  of  the  Jewish  quarters  in  ancient 
Rome  see  Signor  Pietro  RomanelH  in  Palestine  Exploration  Fund  Quar- 
terly Report,  1914,  pp.  134-140;  compare  also  Abbe  Constant  Fouard,  St. 
Peter  and  the  First  Christians,  pp.  249-259. 


5i8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Jacob,  Judas,  Anna,  Rebecca,  Marian,  Titania, 
Eutropius,  Fortunatus,  Antipas,  Glukus,  Alexander, 
Euodia  {cf.  Phil.  4:2),  and  many  more,  the  sound  of 
which  must  have  been  most  familiar  to  the  apostle. 
Some  of  the  Jewish  tombs  are  large,  one  recently  dis- 
covered measuring  18  feet  wide  by  17  feet  deep,  being 
built  by  Julius  Justus  "for  himself  and  his  wife,  his 
freedmen  and  fneedwomen  and  their  descendants." 

Several  times  the  "synagog  of  the  Hebrews"  is 
mentioned,  and  once  Tychicus  the  "head  of  the  syna- 
gog"  {cf.  Acts  20:4;  Eph.  6:21);  Julianus  is  also 
mentioned  as  "Gerusiarch  of  the  Sanhedrin,"  and 
a  Macedonian  is  spoken  of  whose  father  came  from 
"Csesarea  in  Palestine."  Perhaps  the  most  interesting, 
however,  is  the  epitaph  which  reads: 

"Here  lies  Prokleina,  18  years  and  50  days  old.  Her  mother 
Aquileina  erected  this." 

The  name  of  Aquila,  the  friend  of  Paul,  is  closely 
associated  with  Rome  (Acts  18:2),  and  Giorgio 
Schneider  Graziosi  thinks  Aquileina  is  merely  the 
feminine  form  of  Aquila.^^ 

The  Palestine  Exploration  Fund  has  lately  pub- 
lished some  very  interesting  Jewish  inscriptions  recently 
discovered  in  Rome.  The  largest  and  most  impressive  of 
these  concerns  a  lady  whose  wifely  qualities  and  re- 
ligious faith  are  thus  eulogized  by  her  husband: 

"Here  is  buried  Regina  concealed  in  this  fair  tomb  which  her 
husband  built  as  a  mark  of  his  love  for  her,  who  had  lived  with 
him  twenty  years  and  four  months,  lacking  eight  days.  She  is 
sure  to  live  again,  and  again  return  to  the  light  (of  life)  ;  for  she 
can  have  hope  of  this,  because  she  shall  rise  for  a  promised 
eternity,  which  is  the  unfailing  faith  of  the  worthy  and  pious. 
"^  Nuovo  Bnllettifio  di  archeologia  cristiani,  1915,  pp.  13-56,  152-157 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       519 

She  deserved  to  have  an  abode  in  the  Blessed  Country.  This  will 
be  assured  thee  by  thy  pure  life,  thy  love  for  thy  people,  thy 
fidelity  to  law,  the  worthiness  of  thy  wedded  life,"  etc.^^ 

Joseph  Ofiford  points  out  that  the  mention  of  the 
resurrection  and  Paradise  is  rather  novel  in  a  Jewish 
epitaph. 

If  just  one  little  sentence  could  be  found  on  some 
relic  which  St.  Paul  himself  had  written,  it  would  be 
worth,  sentimentally,  more  than  all  these  many  other 
Jewish  inscriptions;  but  no  such  autograph  has  been 
preserved,  neither  can  we  be  absolutely  sure  even  of  the 
place  where  he  lived  during  his  residence  in  Rome. 
Lanciani  is  very  certain  that  it  could  not  have  been 
at  the  spot  pointed  out  under  the  Church  of  St.  Maria 
in  the  Via  I>ata,  because  this  at  that  era  was  not 
private  property,  a  public  monument  standing  on  this 
site ;  neither  should  it  be  sought  near  the  Church  of  St. 
Paolo  della  Regola,  for  almost  certainly  the  rich  Jews 
living  in  the  Campus  Martins  would  not  have  attracted 
the  apostle  to  this  official  district.  He  favors  the  site 
recommended  a  few  years  ago  by  Padre  Germano,  this 
being  a  well-built  apartment  house  of  three  stories 
situated  near  the  ancient  ghetto,  in  the  Via  degli 
Strengari,  where  Roman  tradition  locates  it.^^ 

'^  Latin  Text  in  Quarterly  Statement,  1914,  p.  47,  and  July,  1916,  p.  146; 
also  this  and  many  others  in  Nuovo  Bullettino  di  arch,  crist.,  1915,  Nos. 
I  and  II,  where  a  catalog  is  given  of  all  the  Jewish  inscriptions  now 
placed  in  the  new  hall  recently  set  apart  for  Hebrew  records  in  the  Lateran 
Museum. 

^  Except  where  other  works  are  quoted  or  the  writer  has  personal  in- 
formation, the  statements  in  this  section  are  all  made  upon  the  authority 
of  Rodolfo  Lanciani  in  his  remarkable  series  of  books,  Wanderings  in  the 
Roman  Campagna  (1909)  :  New  Tales  of  Old  Rome  (1901)  ;  Pagan  and 
Christian  Rome  (1893)  ;  Destruction  of  Ancient  Rome  (1899)  ;  Ancient 
Rome  in  the  Light  of  Recent  Discoveries  (1889)  ;  and  especially  The  Ruins 
and  Excavations  of  Ancient  Rome  (1897)  ;  compared  with  and  supple- 
mented by  Orazio  Marucchi,  Christian  Epigraphy  (1912)  ;  and  The  Roman 
Forum  and  the  Palatine  (1906)  ;  and  especially  his  illuminating  reports  in 
the  Nuovo  Bullettino. 


520     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

.  An  ancient  tradition  identifies  the  dungeon  in  which 
both  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  were  incarcerated  with 
the  horrible  Mamertine  prison  in  which  Lentulus  and 
the  Catiline  conspirators,  as  well  as  Jugurtha  and 
other  important  state  prisoners,  were  killed  or  starved 
to  death,  altho  this  identification  is  by  no  means  con- 
clusive; but  that  the  burial  place  of  St.  Paul  has  been 
found  Marucchi  does  not  doubt.  In  191 5  Mons.  De 
Waal  gave  a  great  sum  to  carry  on  excavations  in  the 
Basilica  di  S.  Sebastiano.  About  six  feet  beneath 
the  floor  a  pagan  columbarium  of  the  first  century  was 
found  and  some  frescos  of  the  third  century;  but,  far 
more  important  than  either,  graffiti  were  discovered 
scribbled  upon  the  walls  of  the  nearby  crypt,  proving 
that  in  the  fourth  century  this  was  regarded  as  the 
cenotaph  of  the  two  apostles.  This  confirms  the  ancient 
traditions  which  declare  that  the  bodies  were  taken 
here  for  protection  in  the  third  century.^* 

Another  even  more  certain  ancient  relic  com- 
memorating the  two  great  apostles  are  the  gilded 
glasses,  dating  from  the  second  half  of  the  second  and 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  on  many  of  which 
pictures  of  Peter  and  Paul  are  executed  on  the  flat 
bottom  in  gold  leaf.  Out  of  340  of  these  glasses  pub- 
lished by  Garrucci  these  pictures  are  found  on  eighty. 
They  also  contained  such  mottoes  as:  "Mayest  thou 
live  long!";  "A  mark  of  friendship";  "Life  and  happi- 
ness to  thee  and  thine."  These  were  evidently  gifts 
for  festival  occasions,  and  Marucchi  believes,  since 
there  is  a  uniformity  of  type  in  the  pictures,  that  they 
originated  from  real  portrait  pictures.^^ 

"'  Nuovo  Bullettino.  Jan.  20,  1916. 

""See  also  T.  Livius,  S.  Peter,  Bishop  of  Rome  (1888),  pp.  132#. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       521 

Excavations  at  the  church  of  San  Clemente  begun 
fifty  years  ago  have  recently  yielded  some  important 
results.  Below  the  eleventh  century  church  a  fourth 
century  basilica  was  dug  up  "filled  with  matter  of 
greatest  interest  to  the  Christian  historian."  Under- 
neath this  church  a  Roman  house  of  the  imperial 
period  came  to  light,  one  chamber  of  which  was  evi- 
dently regarded  as  a  holy  shrine.  There  is  considerable 
reason  for  believing  that  this  was  the  house  of  St. 
Clement  of  Rome;  but  the  strange  thing  is,  that  not 
only  a  Christian  shrine  was  found  there  but  also  a 
shrine  of  Mithras — a  pathetic  relic  of  the  later  years 
when  this  mystic  religion  made  so  many  converts  from 
the  Christian  faith.^' 

5.  Explorations  in  Various  Galatian  Cities 
The  discoveries  in  Asia  Minor  rival  any  in  Egypt 
or  Italy  in  their  value  in  illuminating  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  French  were  the  pioneers  in  scientific  work 
here,  and  the  publications  of  the  Ecole  Frangaise 
d'Afhenes  have  done  more  than  any  other  to  aid  the 
student  of  Asia  Minor."  F.  V.  J.  Arundell,  in  1832, 
succeeded  in  discovering  Antloch  of  Pisidia  and  brought 
back  to  England  a  number  of  texts  from  its  ruins,  the 
most  impressive  being  those  in  which  he  mentions  an 
official  who  is  called: 

"High  priest  for  life  of  the  most  glorious  god  Bacchus." 

And  on  the  pedestal  of  a  statue: 
"To  Titus  Claudius  Paulinus,  the  heroic  philosopher." 
Mr   Arundell   suggestively   remarks  that   the   near 
relatives  of  these  men  or  their  successors  in  office  may 

""  See  London  Expositor,  Feb.,  1915. 

*'  Ramsay.  Historical  Geography  of  Asia  Minor,  p.  9. 


522     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

have  ''heard  the  words  of  hfe  from  the  priests  of  the 
Most  High  God." '' 

W.  J.  Hamilton  pubHshed  valuable  researches  in 
1834  with  455  Greek  inscriptions  gathered  in  a  two 
years'  journey  f®  and  Philippe  Le  Bas  and  W.  H.  Wad- 
dington  issued  a  much  larger  and  more  important  work 
embodying  their  researches,  1843-44,  and  containing 
many  hundreds  of  short  inscriptions/"  Some  other 
scholars  issued  important  volumes;  nevertheless  Asia 
Minor  was  practically  an  unknown  land  to  Europe 
until  MM.  Duchesne  and  CoUignon  in  1876  plunged 
into  this  terra  incognita  and  made  detailed  investiga- 
tions and  learned  reports  of  such  popular  value  that 
soon  the  entire  scholastic  world  was  interested  in  this 
country,  which  was  historically  the  ''bridge"  between 
Europe  and  Asia. 

Sir  William  M.  Ramsay,  however,  has  done  more 
than  any  other  man  or  group  of  men  to  investigate 
thoroughly  the  antiquities  particularly  of  Anatolia 
(western  Asia  Minor),  and  to  apply  the  results  in  a 
very  brilliant  manner  to  the  illustration  and  con- 
firmation of  the  New  Testament  records.  In  com- 
pany with  Col.  C.  W.  Wilson  he  made  his  first  long 
journey  into  this  country  in  1881  and  1882;  later  with 
J.  R.  S.  Sterret,  D.  G.  Hogarth,  and  others,  he,  as  the 
chief  representative  of  the  Asia  Minor  Exploration 
Fund,  liberally  supported  by  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  of  England,  has  visited  the  country  periodically 
every  few  years  up  to  the  present  time  (19 16),  and 
has  gathered  vast  numbers  of  inscriptions  and  much 
topographical     information     which     have     completely 

°'  Discoveries  in  Asia  Minor,  1 :  272-290. 

'"Researches  in  Asia  Minor  (2  vols.,  1837). 

^''Voyage  archcologique  en  Grcce  et  en  Asie  Mineure  (5  vols.),  1870. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       523 

changed  the  views  of  scholars  concerning  the 
geography  and  history  of  Asia  Minor  in  New  Testa- 
ment times,  and  in  many  respects  have  changed  the  cur- 
rent views  concerning  the  rehgious  cults  of  that  period. 

An  enormous  body  of  Christian  inscriptions  from 
the  second,  third,  and  fourth  centuries  have  thus  been 
brought  to  light,  especially  in  Phrygia  and  Lycaonia, 
some  of  which  have  already  been  made  use  of  in  this 
work.  The  education  of  these  early  Christians,  as  con- 
trasted with  that  found  in  certain  later  centuries,  is  set 
into  fine  relief  when  we  remember  that  the  Crusaders 
who  marched  through  Asia  Minor  to  Palestine  left  not 
one  written  memorial. ^^ 

Sir  William  M.  Ramsay's  discovery  that  the  term 
Galatia,  as  used  in  the  New  Testament  and  on  certain 
popular  non-Biblical  inscriptions,  did  not  refer  to  the 
northern  district  but  to  South  Galatia  (which  district 
included  the  well-known  cities  of  Antioch,  Iconium, 
Derbe  and  Lystra),  resolved  more  New  Testament 
puzzles  and  eliminated  more  supposed  Biblical  "mis- 
takes" than  perhaps  any  other  one  discovery  made  in 
the  last  half  century.  There  are  grammatical  objec- 
tions to  this  explanation  of  the  term;^^  but  such  objec- 
tions are  purely  verbal,  the  historical  and  geographical 
facts  compelling  archeologists  with  practical  unanimity 
to  accept  Ramsay's  theory.  While  the  evidence  does  not 
amount  quite  to  a  demonstration,  it  is  nearer  to  it  than 
that  offered  for  many  other  universally  accepted 
hypotheses;  and  the  difficulties  which  it  raises  are  very 
few  compared  with  those  met  by  the  opposing  theory. 

"  Ramsay,  Seven  Churches  of  Asia,  p.  110. 

"See  Ency.  Bib.,  pp.  1592-1616;  Moffatt,  Introduction  to  the  Literature 
of  the  New  Testament,  pp.  90-94,  for  literature  and  argument;  and  add 
Robertson,  Grammar  of  the  Greek  New  Testament,  p.  863. 


524     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

External  history,  antiquities,  and  geography  are  wholly 
in  favor  of  the  South  Galatian  view,  and  the  fact  that 
it  removes  contradictions  from  the  New  Testament 
narrative  ought  not  to  be  considered  as  militating 
against  its  truth.  Sir  W.  M.  Ramsay  began  his  studies 
in  Asia  Minor  holding  to  the  old  belief  concerning  the 
meaning  of  the  term  Galatia  and  accepting  the  view, 
which  was  current  fifty  years  ago,  that  the  mistakes  in 
the  book  of  Acts  were  due  to  the  fact  that  the  book  was 
fabricated  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century;  but  his 
researches  finally  drove  him  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
author  of  the  book  wrote  with  such  admirable  knowl- 
edge that  he  could  not  have  lived  in  the  second  century 
and  that  Paul  spoke  about  these  provinces  of  Rome  in 
exactly  the  same  natural  and  non-technical  way  that 
the  Romans  themselves  spoke  and  wrote,  as  was  proved 
by  the  inscriptions." 

If  Paul  made  a  missionary  journey  to  North  Galatia 
he  almost  certainly  visited  the  great  cities  Ancyra, 
Pessinus,  etc. — altho  he  never  mentioned  them  after- 
ward,— and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  according  to 
Eusebius  the  very  earliest  reference  to  Christianity  in 
North  Galatia  is  at  Ancyra  {cir.  a.d.  192)  in  an  anti- 
Montanist  treatise  (Hist.  eccL,  V,  16).  But  while  the 
Northern  Galatian  antiquities  are  not  insignificant,  we 
are  concerned  alone  with  Southern  Galatia  and  with 
the  recent  discoveries  especially  at  Lystra,  Derbe, 
Antioch,  Iconium,  and  Pisidian  Antioch.^* 

"See  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  74ff;  Expositor,  1911,  p.  258; 
Pauline  and  Other  Studies,  pp.  199j^. 

"  The  skeleton  of  the  following  discussion  is  taken  from  Ramsay's  The 
Cities  of  St.  Paul,  1907,  and  Tlie  Bearing  of  Recent  Discovery  on  the 
Trustworthiness  of  the  New  Testament,  2d  ed.,  1915,  supplemented  from 
the  recent  Biblical  encyclopedias  and  especially  from  the  Journal  of  Hel- 
lenic Studies. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES 


:)-o 


(l)     LYSTRA 

Professor  Sterrett  settled  the  site  of  this  city  in 
1884-5,  ^^^^  from  an  inscription  found  there  not  only 
identified  Khatyn  Serai  as  Lystra  but  proved  that  it 
was  a  Roman  colony.  It  was  situated  about  eighteen 
miles  southwest  of  Iconium,  and  was  probably  made  a 
Roman  colony  6  B.C.  No  excavation  of  any  great  ex- 
tent, so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  has  ever  been  carried 
on  here,  and  very  few  remains  of  the  old  city  are  now 
visible  above  ground.  It  was  off  the  main  road,  being 
situated  in  a  secluded,  charming  spot  among  the  hills, 
and  was  therefore  well  fitted  as  a  place  of  refuge,  as 
was  also  Beroea  (cf.  Acts  14:  5  with  17:  10).  Modern 
discovery  has  shown  a  particularly  strong  influence  of 
the  old  native  language  here,  so  that  it  is  most  natural 
to  find  that  this  was  the  only  cit}^  where  Paul  came  in 
contact  with  an  uneducated  native  population  that  did 
not  naturally  use  the  Greek  vernacular  (Acts  14:  11). 
Since  Lystra  was  the  seat  of  a  Roman  colony  and  situ- 
ated near  a  Roman  road,  the  Latin  influence  was  great. 
The  coins  prove  that  the  art  of  Tarsus  influenced  this 
town  in  no  small  degree.  In  a  neighboring  village 
two  architects  named  Titus  and  Gains,  who  were 
brothers,  mention  their  native  place  in  an  inscription, 
showing  that  in  the  ancient  days,  as  truly  as  now,  civic 
pride  touched  all  classes  of  citizens. 

As  the  Jews  usually  settled  in  cities  which  lay  In 
the  line  of  commerce,  it  is  natural  that  no  synagog  is 
mentioned  in  the  narrative  of  Paul's  visit  to  Lystra. 
The  general  tone  of  xActs  14:8-19  suggests,  as  Ramsay 
well  says,  that  the  surroundings  were  more  thoroughly 
pagan  and  less  permeated  by  Jewish  bias  than  in 
Iconium  or  Antioch.     The  few  Jews  who  lived  here 


526    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

were  probably  influenced  by  their  surroundings,  and 
perhaps  this  accounts  for  the  circumstance  that 
Timothy,  altho  his  mother  was  a  Jewess,  had  never 
been  circumcised  (2  Tim.  3:  10,  11).  However,  the 
fact  that  a  Jewess  would  marry  him  indicates,  as 
Ramsay  points  out,  that  the  father  of  Timothy  was  a 
Greek  occupying  a  position  of  some  importance. 

One  of  Sir  William  Ramsay's  latest  discoveries, 
made  in  1909,  throws  light  on  the  conduct  of  the 
natives  of  Lystra  who  called  Paul,  Mercury  and 
Barnabas,  Jupiter  (Acts  14:12);  for  he  found  in 
a  nearby  ruin  an  inscription  by  native  Lycaonians  re- 
cording the  dedication  of  a  statue  to  Zeus  (Jupiter) 
and  Hermes  (Mercury),  This  shows  that  these  two 
gods  were  classed  together  in  the  local  cult,  and  again 
illustrates  the  accurate  local  knowledgre  of  St.   Luke. 


^fcj' 


(2)    DERBE 

It  was  Professor  Sterrett  who  in  1885  fixt  the 
site  of  Derbe,  altho  the  identification  is  not  absolutely 
conclusive.  This  city  was  most  probably  situated 
where  a  great  artificial  mound  appears  just  north  of 
the  Taurus  mountains  on  the  edge  of  the  Lycaonian 
plain.  The  remains  are  so  extensive  that  almost  cer- 
tainly there  were  two  ancient  towns  at  different  dates 
connected  with  a  road  which  in  Paul's  day  was  lined 
with  sepulchers.  The  surface  of  these  mounds  is 
covered  with  fragments  of  pottery  of  all  periods  from 
pre-Hellenic  time  onward.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  hours  of  digging  by  a  few  workmen  no  excavations 
have  been  made.  Unfortunately,  the  Derbe  where 
Cicero  was  entertained  and  Paul  found  refuge  is  still 


NEW   LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       527 

underground."  On  the  northwest,  Derbe  was  bor- 
dered by  the  Iconium  territory,  and  on  the  northeast  by 
the  district  of  Barata,  from  which  it  was  separated  by 
a  long  Hne  of  boundary  stones  erected  at  intervals  of 
about  150  feet.  An  imperial  road,  built  6  B.C.,  as 
proved  by  the  milestones,  ran  between  Derbe  and 
Antioch.  Just  as  there  is  a  peak  near  Iconium  which 
the  early  Christians  named  in  remembrance  of  St. 
Philip  and  one  near  Ephesus  named  for  St.  John,  so 
here  there  is  one  which  bears  a  name  probably  reminis- 
cent of  its  connection  in  history  with  St.  Paul. 

Derbe  was  the  frontier  town  of  the  Roman  provmce, 
and  therefore  when  Paul  reached  this  town  he  retraced 
his  steps  to  Lystra.  An  inscription,  probably  of  the 
third  century,  was  put  up  by  Nounnos  and  Valerius  in 
honor  of  "Paul  the  Martyr."  This  was  recently  found 
in  a  ruined  church  nearby.  The  tombstone  had  been 
purchased  ready  made  and  the  inscription  does  not  fit 
very  well;  but  it  is  a  most  pathetic  reminder  that 
altho  Paul  is  not  said  to  have  suffered  any  persecution 
here,  later  disciples  of  the  Nazarene  did  not  escape. 

(3)    ICONIUM 

This  city  still  retains  the  name  Koniyeh  (Konia), 
and  is  well  described  by  Hamilton  as  an  "oasis  in  the 
desert."  '^  All  travelers  notice  its  similarity  to  Damas- 
cus, being  surrounded  by  deserts  but  situated  in  the 
midst  of  gardens.  In  each  case  also  a  river  flows 
down  into  the  city,  tho  here  the  stream  is  soon  lost  in 
the  sand.     It  has  always  been  thought  of  as  one  of  the 

"  Cities  of  St.  Paul,  p.  396. 
'•  Op.  cit.,  II,  146. 


528     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

most  ancient  cities  of  the  world,  its  legendary  history 
beginning  "before  the  flood." 

Iconium  in  the  first  century  controlled  the  fertile 
district  around  it  for  a  distance  of  200  square  miles, 
and  its  mines  and  great  furnaces  were  very  impressive 
to  the  ancient  mind.  It  was  surrounded  by  villages 
which  were  fragments  of  the  central  city,  each  of 
these  having  as  its  chief  officer  a  "first  man."  There 
is  now  no  doubt  that  Iconium  was  a  province  of 
Galatia  during  the  first  three  centuries,  as  this  has 
conclusively  been  proved  by  milestones  and  grave- 
stones.^^ 

The  Romans  naturally  spoke  of  Iconium  as  lying 
in  the  half  barbaric  Lycaonia;  but  the  people  always 
distinguished  themselves  from  the  Lycaonians,  pre- 
ferring to  think  of  themselves  as  citizens  of  a  Phrygian- 
Hellenic  city.  Even  the  cities  farther  from  North 
Galatia  spoke  of  themselves  as  "Galatian"  and  en- 
joyed being  addrest  thus.  The  city  was  strongly 
Roman  and  was  given  an  imperial  name  a.d.  41 ;  so 
that,  as  Ramsay  suggests,  it  is  now  plain  that  Paul  was 
complimenting  the  city  when  he  addrest  a  letter  in- 
tended for  it:  "To  the  Galatians."  Luke  is  also  cor- 
rect when  he  speaks  of  an  important  part  of  the  in- 
habitants as  Hellenes  (Acts  14:1)  as  compared  with 
other  Galatian  cities,  such  as  Lystra  and  Antioch;  for 
the  latter  were  Roman  colonics,  but  Iconium  had  not 
received  that  honor  in  Paul's  day,  tho  it  did  receive 
this  title  about  100  years  later,  after  which  Latin  be- 
came the  official  language.  On  one  of  the  coins  of 
Iconium — perhaps     struck    while     Paul     was     alive — 

"Ramsay,  Cities  of  St.  Paul,  pp.  335,  341,  and  The  Bearing  of  Recent 
Discovery,  pp.  37,  45  ;  and  especially  Expositor,  1911,  p.  257;  Journal  of  Hel- 
lenic Studies,  1911,  pp.  161-214. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       529 

Poppasa,  the  wife  of  Nero,  is  represented  as  a  figure 
of  Good  Fortune  seated  on  a  throne  after  the  fashion 
of  the  Great  Mother. 

All  that  we  have  said  above  illustrating  St.  Luke's 
exact  knowledge  of  local  phrase  and  popular  geography 
may  at  first  seem  rather  unimportant;  but  when  we 
remember  that  when  Sir  William  Ramsay  first  went 
to  Asia  Minor  every  authoritative  geographer  in  the 
world  supposed  that  Luke's  statements  to  which  we 
have  just  referred  proved  him  to  be  unacquainted  with 
the  conditions  around  Iconium  in  Paul's  lifetime,  we 
may  then  appreciate  more  fully  the  importance  of  the 
excavations  which  have  proved  the  geographers  to  be 
wrong  and  Luke  to  be  right.""  Indeed,  it  was  the  un- 
expected discovery  by  Sir  William  Ramsay  that  the 
book  of  Acts  was  correct  in  its  statement  that  Paul 
crossed  the  frontier  into  Lycaonia  in  going  from 
Iconium  to  Lystra,  which  awakened  this  distinguished 
explorer  to  the  possibility  that  perhaps,  after  all,  the 
Bible  historian  might  have  firsthand  information  be- 
neath his  narrative.  It  was  not  until  19 10  that 
Ramsay  found  the  now  famous  monument  proving  that 
Iconium  was  so  thoroughly  Phrygian  that  e^^^en  well- 
to-do  citizens  of  wealth  and  standing  were  still  using 
the  Phrygian  language  in  dedicatory  inscriptions  as 
late  as  a.d.  150-250.'^^  It  may  have  been,  as  Ramsay 
suggests,  because  it  was  the  frontier  that  Luke  hap- 
pened to  mention  the  district,  for  just  as  soon  as  the 
fugitives    had    reached    this    milestone    marking    their 

"'  These  inscriptions  prove  that  from  one  point  of  view  (i.e.,  racially) 
Iconium  could  be  spoken  of  as  Phrygian,  while  from  another  point  of 
view  (i.e.,  administratively)  it  could  be  spoken  of  as  Galatic. 

■'^For  full  description  of  this  remarkable  text  see  Ramsay's  The  Bear- 
ing of  Recent  Discovery  on  the  Trustworthiness  of  the  New  Testament, 
2d  ed..  1915,  p.  45#. 


530     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

entrance  into  a  new  district  they  were  safe  from  pur- 
suit. 

Sir  William  Ramsay  had  his  headquarters  at 
Iconium  each  year  from  1901  to  19 10,  but  of  all  his 
discoveries  none  were  so  important  as  the  above  unless 
it  was  the  finding  of  the  inscription,  published  in  191 1 
in  the  Journal  of  Roman  Studies,  which  conclusively 
proved  that  Iconium,  and  indeed  all  Phrygia,  was 
thought  of  as  a  part  of  Galatia. 

The  inscriptions  show  that  a  tremendous  Christian 
influence  spread  far  and  wide  from  this  city  of  Iconium. 
Its  magistrates  were  supreme  during  their  term  of 
office  and  could  whip  and  expel  without  trial  any  sup- 
posed criminals,  if  the  people  who  gave  them  their 
office  did  not  object;  but  this  expulsion  would  not 
necessarily  be  permanent  after  public  opinion  changed 
or  new  magistrates  came  into  office.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing fact  that  this  is  the  one  place  in  Asia  Minor  where 
early  Christian  (Byzantine)  ceremonial  can  still  be 
seen  much  as  it  was  carried  on  before  Islam  overrun 
the  country.  The  earliest  Iconium  saint  was  a  woman 
(Thekla),  a  fact  which  may  possibly,  as  Ramsay  thinks, 
suggest  the  influence  of  the  ancient  Great  Mother  wor- 
ship, which  was  the  popular  cult  here,  altho  the  Greeks 
wofshiped  Athena  and  the  Romans  adored  the  em- 
perors. A  great  number  of  inscriptions  have  been 
found  in  Iconium  and  in  almost  all  the  villages  sur- 
rounding it,  forty-nine  new  texts  being  reported  as 
late  as  1910.  These  inscriptions  show  prosperity, 
much  interest  in  good  roads,  and  a  real  response  to 
imperial  favor.  Names  often  occur  on  the  Christian 
inscriptions  which  sound  very  familiar  to  the  Bible 
reader,  such  as  Publius,  Paula,  Luke,  Rufus,  etc.     A 


NEW   LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       531 

particularly  interesting  text  is  on  a  monument  dedi- 
cated to  "a  good  man"  who  may  have  been  a  Christian 
presbyter : 

"Gourdas,  a  good  man,  lies  here.  He  was  as  a  dove  among 
men,  a  priest  of  the  Most  High  God.  (This)  stone  Trokondas, 
his  successor  and  follower,  prepared,  and  adorned  his  grave  for 
the  sake  of  his  memory."  ''^ 

(4)    PISIDIAN   ANTIOCH 

This  site  is  now  deserted  and  while  the  ruins  are 
extensive  there  is  only  one  rather  large  building,  prob- 
ably an  ancient  temple  or  music  hall,  which  seems 
imposing.  Excavations  are  much  needed  here.  Great 
arches,  which  were  once  part  of  the  fine  aqueduct,  and 
a  few  broken  marble  columns  are  all  that  now  indicate 
the  richness  of  this  celebrated  ancient  city  which  was 
made  a  Roman  colonia  by  Augustus  and  continued  for 
years  to  be  a  great  administrative  and  military  center 
in  Phrygia.  During  the  first  and  second  centuries,  as 
the  inscriptions  show,  Latin  was  used  in  the  official 
dedications  and  also  in  private  inscriptions.  It  was 
geographically  a  Phrygian  city  but  politically  a  city  of 
Galatia,  as  was  quite  satisfactorily  proved  by  a  group 
of  milestones  in  1905.  A  very  large  number  of  in- 
scriptions have  been  found  upon  or  near  this  site. 

That  the  Jews  were  an  important  element  of  the 
population  is  rendered  certain  by  a  most  curious  fact. 
While  these  people  did  not  often  write  their  public  in- 
scriptions in  Hebrew  and  were  careful  not  to  mention 
their  race  in  their  epitaphs,  yet  that  they  held  an  im- 
portant place  here  is  proved  by  the  funeral  monument 

''Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  XXII :  124,  Gk.  Text  No.  58. 


532     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

of  a  Jewess  dating  probably  from  the  first  century  of 
our  era: 

"An  Antiochian  (by  race)  sprung  from  ancestors  who  held 
many  offices  of  state  in  the  Fatherland,  by  name  Debbora,  given 
in  marriage  to  a  famous  man  Pamphykis  (I  am  buried  here),  re- 
ceiving this  monument  as  a  return  of  gratitude  from  him  for  my 
virgin  marriage."  ^'^ 

Debbora  is  the  ordinary  Greek  spelling  of  the 
Hebrew  Deborah.  The  public  proclamation  of  this 
intermarriage  proves  both  the  prominence  of  Deborah's 
family  and  the  breaking  down  of  Jewish  exclusiveness. 
The  men  of  Deborah's  household,  being  in  such  close 
touch  with  heathen  officials,  must  necessarily  have 
acquiesced  in  much  idolatrous  ritual;  otherwise  they 
could  have  had  neither  political  nor  social  recognition. 
'When  Paul  visited  Antioch,  the  original  Jewish 
colony  had  been  for  three  centuries  and  a  half  exposed 
to  the  influence  which  such  practises  exert  on  the 
characters  of  men,  and  a  profound  efifect  must  have 
been  produced  on  a  race  naturally  receptive  and 
progressive."  ^"^ 

There  was  a  native  Phrygian  element  in  Antioch, 
but  the  Greek  was  predominant.  The  city  lay  on  a 
great  commercial  highway,  and  was  closely  connected 
with  other  Greek  cities,  the  population  being  better 
educated  than  at  Lystra  or  Derbe.  The  Roman  element 
of  the  population  doubtless  constituted  the  chief  aris- 
tocracy— composed  probably,  in  large  part,  of  de- 
scendants of  military  men  who  were  thrown  into  the 
town  when  it  first  became  a  Roman  city — and  visiting 
Roman  princes  were  given  great  honor;  but  the  city  as 

*°  Ramsay,  Cities  of  St.  Paul,  p.  256. 
""^  Ramsay,  ibid.,  p.  258. 


NEW   LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES      533 

a  whole  was  Greek  in  feeling  tho  Roman  in  govern- 
ment, and  Paul  appealed  most  probably  to  this  ele- 
ment.^^ 

Men  was  the  chief  god  of  Antioch.  On  the  coins 
he  stands  with  one  foot  on  a  bull's  head  and  wears  a 
Phrygian  cap.^^  He  was  the  god  of  prophecy  and 
healing.  The  cock,  a  figure  probably  used  to  avert 
evil,  is  also  seen  on  the  coins.  But  the  most  popular 
deity  was  Cybele,  the  Great  Mother,  who  was  the  lead- 
ing deity  in  all  Anatolia.  She  is  usually  represented 
in  a  modest  dress  with  two  lions  by  her  side.  A  cave 
which  was  sacred  to  her,  centuries  before  St.  Paul 
visited  the  city,  is  now  held  sacred  in  memory  of  the 
Virgin  Mary.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that 
the  Romans  at  Antioch,  as  elsewhere,  worshiped  the 
emperors  as  their  leading  cult. 

From  the  more  educated  among  the  middle  class — 
to  which  class  it  is  now  seen  primitive  Christianity 
chiefly  appealed — Paul  got  a  quick  response,  so  that 
by  the  second  Sabbath  he  had  caught  the  ear  of  almost 
the  entire  city.  He  particularly  attracted  the  Gentiles 
to  his  teaching;  perhaps  because  in  his  first  address  he 
called  them  "brethren."  Sir  William  Ramsay  believes 
that  the  reason  this  sermon  is  given  in  such  detail  in 
Acts  is  because  it  was  here  that  an  epochal  step  was 
taken  in  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel,  when  Paul 
opened  a  "door  of  the  Gentiles  directly  into  the  Chris- 
tian Church  instead  of  having  them  pass  first,  as  pre- 
viously, through  the  synagog"  (Acts  13:46).  Mr. 
Hamilton     eighty     years     ago     exprest     this     same 

"  For  a  description  of  the  city  and  general  conditions  at  Antioch  see 
W.  M.  Ramsay,  Epistle  to  Calatians  (1900),  pp.  197 ff. 

"^For  the  coins  of  Pisidian  Antioch,  see  G.  F.  Hall,  Num.  Chroii.,  1914. 
pp.  299-313. 


534    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

thought,  saying,  'Trom  Antioch  of  Pisidia  as  from  a 
sacred  Jerusalem  we  may  date  the  first  preaching  of 
Christianity  to  the  heathen  and  can  not  but  look  upon 
the  deserted  site  and  fallen  ruins  with  a  feeling  of 
respect  and  veneration."  *^  This  was  a  city  where  the 
Greeks  and  the  Jews  were  particularly  friendly,  and 
therefore  was  a  good  point  at  which  to  introduce  this 
new  method  of  evangelism.  The  Romans,  who  in- 
cluded the  women  of  rank,  would  naturally  be  the  class 
of  population  least  interested  at  first  in  the  preaching 
of  St.  Paul,  and  naturally  it  was  this  class  which  the 
offended  Jews  stirred  up  against  the  preacher.  They 
held  the  reins  of  government  and  were  quite  ready  to 
please  the  Jews  by  stopping  such  novel  and  riot-pro- 
voking utterances. 

The  sanctuary  of  Men-Asksenos  in  Antioch  was 
fully  excavated  1910-1913  by  Sir  William  Ramsay;  the 
colossal  altar,  66  by  41  feet,  was  found  in  situ  within 
the  sacred  area,  the  latter  measuring  241  by  136  feet 
and  being  surrounded  by  a  wall  five  feet  thick.  A 
fourth  century  church  nearby  had  been  built  of  the 
stone  from  this  ruined  sanctuary.  It  is  suggestive  that 
no  temple  of  Men  was  found,  but  only  this  holy  High 
Place  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  open  to  the  sky,  in 
the  center  of  which  was  the  ancient  hall  of  initiation, 
and  the  high  trough  or  baptismal  font  where  purifica- 
tions were  made  by  the  worshipers.  There  is  no  doubt 
whatever  that  we  may  see  in  this  newly  discovered 
sanctuary  the  famous  hall  of  Phrygian  mysteries.  The 
hall  proper  was,  doubtless,  the  central  closed  chamber. 
The  soil  above  the  stone  floor  of  this  chamber  was  full 
of  animal  bones  and  teeth,  and  beneath  the  floor  the 

"  Researches,  1 :  476. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       535 

teeth  of  pigs  and  wild  boars  were  found.  Emblems  of 
Men,  a  horned  bull's  head,  and  many  engraved  tablets 
were  excavated.^* 

Sir  William  Ramsay  was  able  to  locate  the  throne 
of  the  deity  in  the  northeastern  corner  of  the  sanctuary, 
and  also  the  very  spot  in  the  center  of  the  room  where 
the  initiate  by  a  mystic  rite  entered  into  the  "new  life" 
where  he  could  be  called  ''holy  and  blessed  .  .  .  god 
instead  of  mortal."  Close  to  this  place  Sir  William 
found  three  of  the  feet  of  the  "holy  bed"  used  for  the 
mystic  marriage  ceremony  between  the  god  and  his 
goddess — in  which  service,  according  to  immemorial 
tradition,  Anatolian  ladies,  even  those  of  highest  rank, 
were  expected  to  take  part. 

The  god  Men  at  Antioch  was  paired  with  Demeter 
and  closely  associated  with  Artemis  (Diana),  who  was 
a  Hellenized  form  of  Cybele,  also  sometimes  rep- 
resented here  in  the  form  of  Hekate,  with  six  birds 
prest  to  her  breast,  as  is  also  the  case  with  Artemis 
at  Ephesus.^*^ 

The  discovery  of  this  sanctuary  is  particularly  in- 
teresting because  these  Phrygian  mysteries  were  so 
well  known  to  the  early  Christians  {cf.  Col.  2:  18),  and 
because  they  were  centers  of  widespread  influence 
during  the  first  and  second  centuries.  High  ecclesi- 
astical dignitaries  doubtless  visited  this  shrine  at 
Antioch,  as  the  priest  of  the  Pythian  Apollo  came 
from  Laodicea  to  see  the  mysteries  at  Klaros,  and  ap- 
plicants for  initiation  and  visitors  to  the  oracle  must 
have  come  from  long  distances.    The  ritual  was  doubt- 

^  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  1912,  p.  111#. 

"*For  discussion  of  Men  see  H.  R.  Hall,  Ancient  History  of  the  Near 
East,  pp.  330,  331  (1913)  ;  especially  A.  B.  Cook,  Zeus;  A  Study  in 
Ancient  Religion,  Vol.  I.,  consult  Index  under  Men  (1914). 


536     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

less  most  impressive,  as  the  chorus  at  Klaros  is  known 
to  have  been  large  and  made  up  of  singers  brought 
from  afar. 

The  earliest  inscription  found  was  that  of  a  freed- 
man  of  Claudius;  the  earliest  portrait  statue  also  dated 
from  the  first  century.^^  Sixty-eight  inscriptions  were 
brought  away  from  this  shrine,  the  one  which  is  most 
impressive  dating  from  a.d.  250-315,  in  which  the 
worshiper  of  Men  and  Artemis  confesses  that  he  has 
sinned  and  needs  atonement  or  expiation.  The  con- 
cept of  sin,  as  exprest  here,  is  so  decidedly  Christian 
that  it  suggests  either  that  the  Christian  idea  is  imi- 
tated by  this  heathen  or  else  that  the  penitent  is  pub- 
licly repenting  of  the  sin  of  having  profest  Chris- 
tianity. The  former  seems  more  likely,  as  this  was  the 
era  when  paganism  was  making  its  last  desperate  fight 
against  the  new  religion  of  Jesus,  and  many  of  the  in- 
scriptions show  this  tendency  to  imitate  Christian 
phraseology.  In  at  least  a  dozen  of  the  votive  tablets 
obtained  here  by  Ramsay  in  191 1  the  strange  word 
TexfxoQeiJoag  was  found — evidently  an  anti-Christian 
word  reminding  one  of  the  pagan  Ubclli.^^  It  looks  as 
if  these  heathen,  who  for  more  than  a  century 
had  been  coming  in  contact  with  the  Christians,  were 
finally  beginning  to  imitate  Christian  phraseology,  call- 
ing themselves  'Svitnesses"  and  lauding  their  departed 
friends  as  those  who  had  ''borne  witness,"  just  as  in 
India  to-day  the  natives  sing: 

"Buddha,   Lover  of  ni}^   soul, 
Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly." 

^'Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  XXXII,  1912,  pp.  111-142,  390#. 
^'Expositor  (London),  1911,  pp.  251-275. 


TWO  GRAVESTONES  FROM  BLAUNDOS.  NOW  AT  USHAK 

From  Sir  VVilliani  Ramsay.  "The  Bearing  of  Recent  Discovery  on  the  Trustworthiness  of 

the  New  Testament."   i2(l.  ed..  p.   S.'jS) 


■^f-y    1^     <ji  ^  ^ 


"-•  z 


<  u      ^  s 

H  W         '^^. 

J  <  o  .; 

-^  K  — 

-t;  •^  M     OS      ^ 

-H  O  (^  ^  =  53 
S  ^  K,  "  £  ~ 

2w<  lis" 

u!  f  "^    p~  3, 

t/3  w  2 


NEW    LIGHT    FROIM    FAA/[OUS    CiTiES       537 

One  Antiochan  text  reported  by  W.  M.  Calder  in 
1912"  illustrates  this  tendency,  since  the  wording  is 
such  that  one  can  not  be  sure  whether  it  was  written 
by  a  heathen  or  a  Christian: 

"Ailios   ...   an  elder  (n:Q£o(3iJTeQog),  to  the  freedman  Ailios 
...   a  freedman  most  highly  honored  for  liis  memory."' 

During  this  revival  of  paganism,  as  it  made  its  last 
battle  against  the  Nazarene,  Christian  benevolence  was 
also  imitated,  and  heathen  worshipers  not  only  began  to 
use  in  their  public  inscriptions  the  higher  spiritual 
terms  introduced  by  the  New  Way,  but  gave  their 
children  religious  names  and  began  to  speak  of  the 
deity  and  of  the  future  life  as  the  Christians  did.  An 
inscription  (early  fourth  century)  speaks  of  one 
''glorified  by  the  immortal  gods  (for  she)  redeemed 
many  from  evil  torments.  .  .  .  Truly  I  received  the 
gift  prophetic  of  truth  in  my  own  city."  Other  pagan 
inscriptions  use  the  expressions  so  common  in  Chris- 
tian literature:  "slave  of  God";  "he  was  perfected," 
etc.'« 

Sir  William  Ramsay  found  in  connection  with  the 
heathen  sanctuary  at  Antioch  the  verb  ef^ipaxeijco  used 
in  describing  how  a  neophyte  (cir.  a.d.  150)  had  "en- 
tered in"  and  "seen"  the  sacred  symbols  and  had  heard 
an  explanation  of  religious  mysteries  which  could  come 
only  to  an  "initiate."  This  would  suggest  that  in 
Col.  2:  18,  where  the  same  word  is  used,  the  apostle 
may  be  warning  the  young  Christians  against  this 
secret  teaching  of  heathen  "wisdom"  when  he  says: 
"Let  no  man  rob  you  of  your  prize  by   .    .    .   dwelling 

^''Journal  of  Roman  Studies,  II,  79-109. 

""  See  for  other  examples  Ramsay,  Pauline  and  Other  Studies. 


538    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

on  the  things  which  he  hath  seen,  vainly  puffed  up."  ^^ 

Probably  the  most  important  of  all  the  new  inscrip- 
tions found  at  Antioch  is  the  one  which  gives  addi- 
tional confirmation  to  the  view  that  Quirinius  (Luke 
2:  2)  was  twice  governor,  once  6-4  b.c.  and  once  earlier, 
probably  16-12  b.c.  There  are  several  ancient  in- 
scriptions that  relate  to  the  prefectorate  of  Quirinius, 
but  this  is  the  most  important.  A  member  of  the 
family  of  the  Caristanii  at  Antioch  was  his  repre- 
sentative, and  must  have  filled  the  place  well,  for  he 
is  recorded  to  be  the  first  man  to  whom  a  statue  was 
ever  erected  in  Antioch  at  the  public  expense. 

But  the  facts  that  this  distinguished  officer  of  state 
who  officially  represented  Quirinius  had  a  wife  named 
Sergia  Paulla,  and  that  the  governor  of  Galatia  visiting 
Antioch  at  this  time  was  named  Sergius  Paullus,  Jr., 
add  immeasurably  to  the  value  and  interest  of  this 
remarkable  document. 

This  brings  very  near  to  one  the  Sergius  Paulus  of 
Cyprus  with  whom  Paul  had  such  a  dramatic  relation- 
ship, and  who  was,  according  to  Sir  William's  view, 
the  father  of  this  great  man  of  Antioch  who,  altho  but 
a  little  past  thirty  years  of  age,  had  won  such  distinc- 
tion as  president  of  the  Board  of  Road  Commissioners 
that  he  had  a  monument  of  honor  erected  to  him  by 
the  city,  Sergia  Paulla  being  his  sister.^'' 

It  will  be  noticed  that  either  Luke  or  the  city  scribe 
made  a  mistake  in  spelling  the  name  of  Sergius  Paullus 
(Acts  13:7) — unless,  indeed,  the  ancient  governor, 
like  Shakespeare,  was  independent  enough  to  spell  his 

*°In  addition  to  the  references  given  see  especially  Sir  William  Ram- 
say, Annual  of  the  British  School  at  Athens,  1911-12,  pp.  37-71. 

«•  See  Journal  of  Roman  Studies,  1913,  pp.  262# ;  1914,  pp.  254j§ 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       539 

name  differently  at  different  times.  However,  Luke 
was  not  with  Paul  at  Cyprus  and  in  any  case  he  would 
be  very  likely,  let  us  hope,  to  favor  phonetic  spelling.^^ 
The  block  of  stone  on  which  the  above-mentioned 
memorial  was  engraved  was  found  at  Antioch  by  Sir 
William  Ramsay  in  1912,  and  reads  as  follows: 

"To  Lucius  Serglus  Paullus,  the  younger,  one  of  the  four 
commissioners  in  charge  of  the  Roman  streets,  tribune  of  the 
soldiers  of  the  sixth  legion,  styled  Ferrata,  questor,"  etc.^^ 

The  other  text  referred  to,  which  mentions  Sergia 
Paulla — whose  name  was  correctly  read  only  in  191 3 — 
joins  with  the  other  in  bringing  the  drama  of  early 
Christian  history  very  close  to  us: 

"The  most  excellent  Sergia  Paulla,  daughter  of  Lucius,  wife 
of  Gains  Caristanius  Pronto,  legatus  of  the  Emperor  Caesar 
(Domi)tian  Augustus,  with  praetorian  rank  of  Lycia  and 
Pamphylia.  (This  monument  erected  by)  Gains  Caristanius 
Fronto,  son  and  grandson  of  Gains."  ^^ 

All  of  these  most  fortunate  discoveries  when  care- 
fully compared  with  each  other  have  enabled  Sir 
Vk^illiam  Ramsay  to  draw  certain  stimulating  con- 
clusions with  reference  to  the  thoroughness  of  the  pro- 
consul's conversion  related  by  Luke.  The  statement 
that  he  "believed"  (Acts  13:  12)  does  not  necessarily 
mean  much  more  than  his  intellectual  acceptance  of 
Paul's   victory   over   Elymas;   but   if   his   descendants 

•*  Sir  William  Ramsay  is  the  supreme  authority  on  Antioch  and  its  re- 
ligion, and  all  who  wish  to  continue  this  study  must  consult  his  Cities  of 
St.  Paul  and  The  Bearing  of  Recent  Discoveries  on  the  Trustworthiness 
of  the  New  Testament,  2d  ed.,  1915. 

*°  Sir  William  Ramsay,  The  Bearing  of  Recent  Discoveries  on  the 
Trustworthiness  of  the  New  Testament,  2d  ed.,  1915,  p.  157. 

''Ibid.,  pp.  154,  155. 


540     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

were  Christians,  the  content  of  the  statement  may  be 
much  fuller  and  richer  than  this.'^^ 

We  know  that  the  son  of  the  proconsul  was  prob- 
ably not  a  Christian,  for  the  inscriptions  show  that  he 
had  an  official  career  which  required  him  to  participate 
in  the  pagan  ceremonies.  This  son  was  probably  at 
Rome,  carrying  on  the  studies  proper  to  his  rank,  when 
Paul  was  in  Cyprus  (c{7\  a.d.  47)  and  as  immediately 
after  the  completion  of  his  education,  he  would  soon 
have  left  home  to  take  up  official  duties,  any  change  in 
his  father's  religious  views  might  not  have  affected 
him  very  powerfully.  But  his  sister,  Sergia  Paulla, 
must  have  been  only  a  child,  or  perhaps  not  yet  born, 
at  the  time  of  Paul's  evangelistic  visit,  so  that  she 
would  have  been  all  her  life  under  the  new  Christian 
influence,  if  the  father  had  whole-heartedl}^  accepted 
Christianity. 

Sir  William  Ramsay  thinks  that  the  new  inscrip- 
tions give  at  least  an  additional  hint  that  Sergia  Paulla 
was  a  Christian  and  that  she  trained  her  children  to 
be  Christians.  This  hint  is  found  in  the  fact  that  while 
her  husband.  Gains  Caristanius  Fronto,  began  a  sena- 
torial career  (cir.  a.d.  73-74) — probably  being  ad- 
vanced from  the  equestrian  order  through  the  in- 
fluence of  his  noble  wife  and  her  brother,  the  governor 
of  Galatia — ^yet  from  this  time  forward  the  Caristanii 
drop  out  of  office,  presumably  because  they  have  be- 
come Christians.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the 
force  of  this  argument,  it  is  at  any  rate  a  great  satis- 
faction to  obtain  this  new  light  upon  the  family  and 
descendants  of  a  Biblical  character  like  Sergius  Paulus. 

'*  For  a  complete  examination  of  the  exact  meaning  of  the  leading  theo- 
logical terms  in  the  early  Christian  vocabulary,  see  Sir  William  Ramsay, 
Teaching  of  Paul  in  Terms  of  the  Present  Day,  1914. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       541 

6.    SiDE-LlGHTS    FROM    OtIIER    CiTIES    ViSITED    BY 

St.  Paul 

(l)    TARSUS 

Tarsus  imprest  the  writer  as  much  as  Damascus  or 
Rome.  The  nearby  seacoast  and  the  mountain  within 
walking  distance  where,  in  ancient  as  in  modern  times, 
the  well-to-do  families  had  their  summer  houses  close 
to  the  famous  Cilician  Gates;  and  the  river  Cydnus 
with  its  enticing  swimming-pool  flowing  so  close  to 
the  city — all  these  things  were  as  familiar  to  Paul  in 
his  boyhood  as  to  the  eighty-eight  students  in  "St. 
Paul's  Collegiate  Institute"  of  Tarsus,  who  in  1913 
were  preparing  for  life  under  the  wise  and  brilliant 
leadership  of  President  Christie. 

The  ancient  Tarsus  had  a  far  larger  and  more 
famous  institution  of  learning  than  this  modern  col- 
lege, for  to  its  university  students  were  drawn  from 
all  parts  of  the  learned  world.  It  was  very  young  and 
neither  as  rich  nor  large  as  the  universities  of  Athens 
and  Alexandria;  yet  it  almost  rivaled  even  those  great 
schools  in  the  fame  of  its  faculty  and  in  its  reputation 
for  doing  thorough  work.  Athenodorus  of  Tarsus 
(74  B.c.-A.D.  7)  influenced  Seneca  so  powerfully  that 
this  may  account  for  the  resemblance  so  often  noticed 
between  Seneca  and  St.  Paul.^^  Tarsus  in  the  reign  of 
Augustus  was  the  one  example  known  in  history  of 
a  state  ruled  by  its  university  and,  as  Ramsay  has 
so  often  pointed  out,  it  was  a  providential  place  for  an 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles  to  be  born  {cf.  Gal.  i:  15).  It 
could  not  be  ranked  in  size  with  Rome  or  Alexandria, 
nor  in  trade  with  such  centers  as  Ephesus,  Corinth,  or 

"=  So  Ramsay,  The  Cities  of  St.  Paul,  1907,  222#. 


542     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Puteoli;  but  it  was  a  place  of  importance  and  it  was 
an  old  city  having  a  noble  history  behind  it.  A  re- 
cently found  text  of  740  lines,  now  in  the  British 
Museum,  tells  how  it  had  been  captured  by  Senna- 
cherib, during  the  lifetime  of  Hezekiah  and  rebuilt  by 
him  after  the  model  of  Babylon  and  given  a  new  name 
Tarsus  (Tharsu).  From  that  time  on  it  could  be 
called  "no  mean  city"  (Acts  21:39),  ^^^  Xenophon 
could  speak  of  it  as  a  *'joy  of  heart." 

Paul  was  by  nation  Jewish  but  by  family  Tarsian. 
From  childhood  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  city.  He  had  the  Jewish  nature  but 
came  into  such  close  contact  from  earliest  boyhood  with 
the  Graeco-Roman  world  at  its  best  that  he  learned 
how  to  make  the  religion  of  the  Jewish  race  intelligible 
to  Gentiles.  There  was  no  anti-Semitic  crusade  in 
Tarsus  as  in  so  many  other  Greek  cities,  but  Greek 
qualities  were  guided  by  the  Asiatic  spirit.  Every 
citizen  was  proud  of  his  city  and  knew  well  its  ancient 
history.  The  coinage  goes  back  to  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ,  and  on  her  coins  Tarsus  was  proudly 
called : 

"LOVELIEST  GREATEST  METROPOLIS." 

The  so-called  tomb  of  Sardanapalus — which  may 
have  actually  been  a  Roman  temple — must  have  been 
familiar  to  every  citizen  in  the  first  century,  as  well 
as  the  ancient  legend  said  to  have  been  sculptured 
upon  it:  "Eat,  drink,  and  play;  for  everything  else 
is  not  worth  the  snap  of  one's  fingers."  But  this 
maxim  did  not  well  represent  the  religion  of  the  aver- 
age Tarsian.  Sandon-Heracles  and  Baal-Tarz  were 
the  leading  deities.     The  former  was  practically  asso- 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       543 

ciatcd  in  the  peasant  mind  with  the  same  ideas  of 
death  and  resurrection  as  pervaded  the  worship  of 
Adonis,  Tammuz,  and  Osiris.  Baal-Tarz — preem- 
inently "Lord  of  Tarsus," — who  often  holds  in  his 
hands  corn  and  grapes,  is  the  giver  of  vegetation  and 
every  other  good  gift,  and  his  picture  as  seen  on  the 
coins  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ  looks  as  noble 
as  the  Greek  Zeus  whom  he  so  greatly  resembled  in 
character.  Lie.  Hans  Bohlig  in  his  recent  work  has 
made  it  perfectly  clear  that  while  St.  Paul  adopted  none 
of  the  heathen  conceptions,  he  nevertheless  at  times 
adapted  his  terminology  and  perhaps  his  method  of 
unfolding  the  redemptive  scheme  of  a  deified  Christ  to 
the  needs  and  pre-conceptions  of  his  Gentile  fellow 
citizens,  who  from  childhood  had  been  taught  the 
mystic  religion  of  Sandon.  At  any  rate  Paul  certainly 
learned  here  to  recognize  even  in  the  pagan  religion 
an  element  of  truth. 

Modern  investigation  has  indicated  that  the  Jews, 
some  two  centuries  before  St.  Paul's  day,  were  brought 
into  Tarsus  under  special  charter  and  with  special 
rights.  St.  Paul  was  probably  descended  from  these 
Jews  and  his  citizenship  may  have  been  in  the  family 
for  generations.^^  Certainly  Paul's  idea  of  Christianity 
was  an  imperial  idea.  He  thought  of  it  as  a  world 
religion  with  Rome  as  its  center.  It  was  as  a  Roman 
citizen  in  the  free  city  of  Tarsus  that  he  obtained  this 
\  vision  of  an  imperial  world  religion,  as  also  his  great 
emphasis  on  freedom. 

The  Tarsian  women  always  drest  modestly,  being 
deeply  veiled.  The  veil  was  the  woman's  crown  and 
protection,  and  this  early  education  may  have  affected 

"Ramsay  thinks  it  began  with  Pompey's  rule  64  B.C.;  ibid.,  205. 


544     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

St.  Paul's  teaching  (e.g.,  i  Cor.  11:3-10).  Roman 
citizens  always  had  three  or  four  names,  so  that  their 
full  name  is  seldom  used.  Sir  William  Ramsay 
emphasizes  the  fact  that  Paul  certainly  had  both  a 
Roman  and  a  Jewish  name  from  childhood.  Work 
upon  linen  and  the  making  of  tent-cloth  constituted  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  industries  of  ancient  Tarsus, 
and  while  no  Jewish  tent-maker  could  be  found  in 
Tarsus  when  the  writer  visited  there,  it  is  a  fact  that 
up  to  within  a  few  years  this  business  was  continued 
by  Jews  in  modern  Tarsus.  Every  Hebrew,  however 
rich  and  whatever  his  profession,  had  to  learn  a  trade, 
and  Paul  took  the  trade  which  was  most  common  in  his 
own  city. 

A  Palestinian  Jew  could  never  have  become  the 
evangelist  and  teacher  of  the  Greek-Roman  world.  He 
could  not  have  touched  its  heart  or  even  felt  its  pulse 
as  Paul  could  do.''^  It  was  also  in  Tarsus  that  Paul 
so  mastered  the  Greek  philosophy  as  to  be  able  to  mix 
on  equal  terms  with  educated  men,  so  that  he  could  be 
counted  a  friend  of  the  Asiarchs  of  Ephesus  and  talk 
as  an  equal  to  a  Roman  centurion  or  a  Syrian  gov- 
ernor. Let  it  also  be  remembered  that  it  was  here  or 
near  here  that  Paul  began  his  missionary  career  and 
preached  his  first  evangelistic  sermons  (Acts  15:28; 
Gal.  i:2i).^« 

(2)    DAMASCUS 

Because  of  Paul's  early  acquaintance  with  this  city 
it  probably  ought  to  be  mentioned  in  this  list,   altho 

"  See  Ramsay,  Teaching  of  Paul  in  Terms  of  the  Present  Day,  1914, 
pp.  32#. 

"^  For  a  striking  summary  of  the  influences  of  Tarsus  upon  Paul  see 
Lie  Hans  Bohlig,  Die  Geisteskultiir  von  Torsos,  1913,  67ff. 


NEW   LIGHT   FROM    FAMOUS   CITIES      545 

its  poverty  of  antiquities  is  remarkable.  However, 
some  of  the  walls  are  ancient ;  some  of  the  Roman  gates 
are  well  preserved;  the  ''Street  Straight"  still  runs 
through  the  city  from  the  eastern  to  the  western  gate; 
while  the  large  church  of  John  the  Baptist,  which  was 
constructed  by  Arcadias  about  a.d.  400,  still  shows  at 
one  point,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  was  turned 
into  a  Mohammedan  mosque  in  the  eighth  century  and 
has  several  times  been  burned,  the  following  famous 
inscription : 

"Thy  kingdom,  O  Christ,  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  thy 
dominion  endureth  throughout  all  generations."^^ 

Another  interesting  inscription  (a.d.  318-319)  dis- 
covered near  here  reads: 

"The  meeting  house  (SuvayoJYi^)  of  the  Marionists,  in  the 
village  of  Lebanon,  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Erected 
by  the  forethought  of  Paul  the  presbyter."  ^^* 

(3)    PHILIPPI 

When  Paul  crossed  into  Europe  the  first  important 
city  that  he  came  to  was  Philippi.  From  both  coins 
and  inscriptions  it  is  well  proved  that  this  was  a  Roman 
colony.  But  how  does  Luke  dare  to  speak  of  this  city 
as  being  ''the  first  of  the  district"?  Even  Dr.  Hort '"" 
thought  the  author  of  the  Acts  had  made  a  mistake 
here,  using  a  well-known  Greek  word  in  an  impossible 
sense,   since   [xegig  never   means   "region."     Dr.    Hort 

••  As  the  writer  remembers  this  inscription  it  does  not  read  exactly  as 
quoted  here,  but  Dr.  R.  A.  S.  Macalister  is  responsible  for  the  quotation  as 
given. 

•"^  Quoted  by  Harnack,  The  Mission  and  Expansion  of  Christianity  in 
the  First  Three  Centuries,  1908,  Vol.  II,  p.  124. 

^°°  Appendix  to  his  New  Testament  in  the  Original  Greek,  p.  96. 


546    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

was  right  so  far  as  any  text  known  at  that  time  could 
throw  light  upon  this  word.  But  recently  in  the  Fayum 
a  number  of  documents  have  been  found  showing  that 
Luke  was  better  posted  on  the  technical  names  for  the 
local  divisions  of  territory  in  the  first  century  than 
even  the  greatest  experts  on  the  Greek  language  a 
generation  ago.  All  scholars  are  now  agreed  that  this 
word  was  actually  used  here  "in  a  legitimate  sense  and 
one  particularly  associated  with  Macedonia."  "^ 

But  in  the  Bible  narrative  there  is  still  another 
difficulty.  Luke  calls  Philippi  ''the  first"  city  of  the 
district,  whereas  ancient  historians  name  Amphipolis 
as  capital  of  this  geographical  division  of  the  country. 
Has  the  Bible  author  made  a  mistake  or  is  the  text 
corrupt,  as  Blass  supposed?  Probably  neither.  Luke 
being  a  native  of  Philippi  would  naturally  claim  for 
his  own  town  the  precedence  over  this  other  rival  city 
which  his  townsmen  were  doubtless  claiming  then, 
which  claim  was  acknowledged  a  little  later  uni- 
versally.^"^ This  incidental  proof  of  the  local  par- 
tialities of  the  author  of  the  Acts  gives  better  testimony 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  a  companion  of  the  apostle  in 
his  journeys  and  not  a  second  century  historian  than 
any  number  of  direct  assertions  could  do  if  made  in  the 
narrative. 

The  title  given  by  Luke  to  the  officials  of  Philippi — 
"praetors" — adds  to  the  above  argument.  The  term 
was  not  technically  correct,  but  the  inscriptions  have 
proved  that  it  was  "employed  as  a  courtesy  title  for 
the  supreme  magistrates  of  a  Roman  colony;  and  as 
usual  Luke  moves  on  the  plane  of  educated  conversa- 

"'  See  Hogarth,  Authority  and  Archceology,  pp.  349-350. 
^'^^  Ibid.,  p.  250;  and  Ramsay,  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  206. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       547 

tion  in  such  matters,  and  not  on  the  plane  of  rigid 
technical  accuracy."  "^ 

(4)    THESSALONICA 

From  Philippi  the  apostle  went  to  Thessalonica, 
which  was  not  a  Roman  colony  but  a  free  Greek  city, 
and  here  again  he  was  supposed,  up  to  a  very  recent 
period,  to  have  made  a  curious  blunder  when  he  re- 
ferred to  the  "rulers"  of  the  city.  He  twice  calls  them 
noXixdQxqq  "politarchs"  (Acts  17:6,  8),  a  title  which 
is  used  nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testament  and  does 
"not  appear  in  any  other  place  in  Greek  literature" 
(Haverfield). 

But  some  years  ago  a  visitor  at  Salonika,  which 
now  marks  the  site  of  the  ancient  Thessalonica,  saw  a 
marble  slab  built  into  one  of  the  mud  houses,  and 
when  he  had  examined  it,  found  it  to  be  part  of  an 
ancient  arch  which  contained  engraved  upon  it  certain 
remarks  about  the  "politarchs"  of  the  city!  Since  that 
time  sixteen  other  texts  from  the  same  site  have  been 
found  containing  the  same  confirmation  of  the  local 
accuracy  of  the  Lukan  narrative. ^"^ 

Several  other  illustrations  showing  indirectly  the 
unexpected  accuracy  of  the  author  of  the  Acts,  as 
proved  by  modern  discoveries,  are  given  in  Hogarth's 
work  already  mentioned:  "The  whole  aspect  of  what 
happened  at  Thessalonica,  as  compared  with  the  events 
at  Philippi,  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  ascertained 
difiference  in  the  political  condition  of  the  two  places. 
There  is  no  mention  of  the  rights  and  privileges   of 

^"'Ramsay,  op.  cit.,  218;  quoted  approvingly  by  Hogarth,  Authority  and 
Archccology,  p.  352. 

^'^  See  especially  American  Journal  of  Theology,  1897,  p.  598. 


548     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Roman  citizenship;  but  we  are  presented  with  the 
spectacle  of  a  mixed  mob  of  Greeks  and  Jews,  who  are 
anxious  to  show  themselves  to  be  Caesar's  friends.  No 
lictors  with  rods  and  fasces  appear  upon  the  scene; 
but  we  hear  something  distinctly  of  a  dermis  or  free 
assembly  of  the  people.  Nothing  is  said  of  religious 
ceremonies  which  the  citizens,  being  Roman,  may  not 
lawfully  adopt;  all  the  anxiety,  both  of  people  and 
magistrates,  is  turned  to  the  one  point  of  showing 
their  loyalty  to  the  emperor.  And  those  magistrates 
by  whom  the  question  at  issue  is  ultimately  decided  are 
not  Roman  prcctors,  but  Greek  politarchs"  (Conybeare 
and  Howson). 

"It  is  well  known  that  the  visit  to  Philippi  is  de- 
scribed in  the  first  person  plural,  while  in  that  to 
Thessalonica  we  get  back  into  the  ordinary  narrative 
in  the  third  person.  That  is  usually  held  to  mean  that 
in  the  one  narrative  we  have  the  evidence  of  an  eyewit- 
ness, w^iether  worked  up  or  not,  in  the  other  we  have 
not.  And  the  further  question  arises.  Is  the  author  of 
the  Acts  the  eyewitness  who  falls  naturally  into  the 
first  person  when  he  is  describing  occasions  at  which 
he  was  present  with  St.  Paul,  or  is  he  a  later  writer, 
who,  in  an  extremely  inartistic  way,  incorporated  the 
fragment  of  a  diary  with  other  information?  On  this 
we  have  only  one  observation  here  to  make.  The 
narrative  of  the  visit  at  Philippi  is  accurate  and  full  of 
local  coloring.  That,  it  is  said,  is  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  author  had  good  material  here.  But  when 
we  pass  to  Thessalonica,  we  have  the  same  evidence  of 
local  knowledge,  and  the  same  accuracy  in  constitu- 
tional points.  Does  not  this  suggest  that  we  have  here 
the  work  of  the  same  hand  in  both  cases?    If  St.  Luke 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       549 

were  a  native  of  Philippi,  he  would  know  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  neighboring  city  of  Thessalonica ;  and 
altho  he  was  not  present,  his  narrative,  based  on 
various  information  that  he  received,  would  be  ac- 
curate, and  the  local  circumstances  would  naturally 
become  prominent.  The  hypothesis  that  the  author 
was  the  same  is  surely  more  natural  than  to  imagine 
two  sources,  both  the  product  of  authors  with  good 
local  knowledge,  worked  up  in  the  same  style  by  a 
tendens  writer  of  the  second  century."  "^* 

(5)    ANTIOCH    IN    SYRIA 

Of  this  ancient  city  little  now  remains  except  some 
colossal  ruins  of  aqueducts  and  Roman  walls;  yet  it 
must  be  mentioned  because  it  was  the  cradle  of  Gentile 
Christianity  and  one  of  the  most  important  centers  of 
Christian  life  from  the  third  to  the  sixth  century.  Here 
it  was  that  the  disciples  were  first  called  Christians  and 
it  was  to  this  center  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  reported 
their  missionary  work.  It  was  called  "Antioch  the 
Golden,"  and  only  Rome  and  Alexandria  surpassed  it 
in  population  and  wealth,  while  it  was  regnant  in 
politics,  philosophy,  and  the  arts.  Many  races  met 
within  its  walls,  the  somber  cults  of  the  orient  being 
mellowed  through  contact  with  the  elegant  rites  of 
Greece.  The  Jews  were  especially  well  received  at 
Antioch,  and  the  feeling  was  reciprocated,  the  Jewish 
king  giving  a  portico  to  the  city.  Being  the  seat  of 
the  first  Christian  patriarchate  of  the  orient,  it  rivaled 
Alexandria  in  its  theological  influence,  its  schools  being 
more  stable  and  sober  than  those  of  Egypt.  Its  society 
was  rich,  polished,  and  refined,  and  Chrysostom  became 

^"^"D.  G.  Hogarth,  Authority  and  Archccology,  pp.  352-354. 


550     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

vainly  angry  against  the  luxurious  dress,  false  hair, 
perfumes,  and  painted  faces  of  its  women,  and  against 
the  love  of  the  circus  displayed  by  its  supposedly  Chris- 
tian men.  Yet  every  Christian  house  was  marked  by 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  numerous  philanthropic  in- 
stitutions arose,  more  than  three  thousand  widows  and 
orphaned  maidens  being  supported  at  one  time  by  the 
church.  This  city  was  the  home  of  great  engineering 
enterprises,  and  its  architects  were  renowned  the  world 
over,  ordinarily  following  the  Greek  tradition,  tho 
adopting  the  arch  and  vault  from  Rome.^"^^ 

The  original  city  was  laid  out,  as  was  Alexandria, 
with  two  great  colonnaded  streets  intersecting  at  the 
center.  Tiberius  built  several  colonnades  and  en- 
larged the  theater.  A  little  before  Paul's  day  a  large 
temple  to  Jupiter  Capitolinus  was  erected  and  a  mag- 
nificent forum.  A  little  later  Titus,  it  is  said,  set  up 
the  cherubim  captured  from  the  Jewish  temple  over  one 
of  the  gates.  About  an  hour's  walk  from  the  city  was 
the  famous  grove  of  Daphne  where  Artemis  was  wor- 
shiped with  choruses  of  music,  licentious  rites,  and 
every  extravagance  of  luxury.  It  was  in  this  city, 
which  even  excelled  Corinth  in  its  temptations,  that 
Christianity  made  its  greatest  impression  in  the  early 
centuries.  Ten  great  synods  of  the  Church  were  held 
at  Antioch  in  the  third  century,  and  it  was  here  that 
Simeon  Stylites  practised  asceticism  on  the  top  of  his 
pillar. 

A  remarkable  discovery  made  at  Antioch  was  that 

by  some  well-diggers  in  19 lO,  who  found  seven  silver 

objects,   probably   on  the   site  of  the   ancient   church. 

Of  these  the  most  important  was  a  silver  chalice,  con- 

"^C/.  a  brilliant  description  by  De  Vogue.Syrie  Centrale,  pp.  13-16. 


w  w 

p*  :>  HO 

a  .>  ?3  ^  C.  « 

=  S-  §  O  2  0  i3 

s  °  ^  2  ,^  '^ 

-  "  W  5  ^  O  O 

s  I  ^  ^  5  -^ 

S  s  d  f^  > 


(g  KnuclKil;  i  Frc'vs,    1017. 

THE  GREAT  CHALICE  OF  ANTIOCH 

Showing   fiBure   of   Clirist    aiul    a    Ip.mb    (center)    and    of   Peter    (lower   left   side) 


(c)  Kouehakji  Freres,   I'Jii. 

DETAIL  FROM  THE  GREAT  CHALICE 

OF  ANTIOCH 

Showing  figure  of   St.   Peter 


DET.ML   I'ROAr   TTIK   (.REAT   CHALICE 

OF    ANTIOCH 

Showing  figure  of  St.   James  the  Less 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       551 

sisting  of  a  silver  communion  bowl,  covered  with  a 
silver  sheet  of  beautiful  ornamentation,  dating,  it  is 
said,  from  a.d.  57-87.  This  date  is  possible,  as 
the  chased  decorations  of  grapevines,  bundles  of 
grapes,  birds,  etc.,  are  done  in  so  exquisite  a  manner 
as  to  prove  that  the  work  was  executed  by  a  Greek 
artist  of  remarkable  skill.  But  the  chief  wonder  is  yet 
to  be  told — "portrait  figures"  of  Christ  and  ten  of  his 
apostles  are  worked  out  in  this  beautiful  design!  But 
even  more  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  these  portraits 
should  have  been  affixt  to  such  a  poorly  executed  inner 
bowl.  Dr.  Eisen's  explanation  is  that  the  inner  bowl 
was  regarded  as  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  chalice, 
otherwise  the  artist  who  made  the  figures  would  have 
improved  the  bowl  to  harmonize  it  with  the  rest. 

Dr  Gustavus  A.  Eisen,  who  in  September,  19 16, 
reported  in  detail  the  particulars  of  the  discovery,  and 
described  the  decorations,  says:  *'The  face  of  the 
Christ  seems  divine ;  no  subsequent  artist  has  succeeded 
in  imparting  that  sweetness  and  gentleness  which  tradi- 
tion gives  to  the  Saviour's  features  and  which  we  here 
for  the  first  time  see  realized.  The  heads  of  the 
apostles  are  equally  remarkable.  We  seem  to  read  the 
character  of  each  of  them ;  the  very  soul  of  man  is  here 
portrayed  in  the  metal  as  perhaps  never  before  or 
after  in  Christian  art."  "'" 

Every  other  critic  who  has  seen  this  truly  wonder- 
ful artistic  creation  seems  to  be  almost  equally  en- 
thusiastic over  its  technique,  it  being,  as  Prof.  Geo.  W. 
Gilmore  judges,  "The  best  piece  of  work  from  the 
standpoint  of  execution  of  any  early  Christian  piece 
that  we  have;  and  certainly  the  figure  which  is  recog- 

"'"  American  Journal  of  Archceology,  Oct.-Dec,  1916. 


552    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

nized  as  that  of  Peter  appears  to  be  the  one  which  has 
set  the  model  for  subsequent  alleged  portrait-drawing 
of  that  apostle."  ^^^^  If,  indeed,  scholars  shall  accept  a 
first  century  dating  for  this  chalice — thus  pushing  its 
age  back  to  a  point  practically  contemporary  with  that 
of  the  Holy  Grail — no  enthusiasm  can  be  extravagant, 
since  in  that  case  we  would  probably  possess  here  a 
genuine  portrait  head  of  Jesus  coming  from  the 
apostolic  age.  A  final  decision  on  this  point  must  be 
reserved. 

(6)    CYPRUS 

Since  Cesnola,  the  United  States  consul  at  Cyprus, 
gathered  his  remarkable  collection  of  precious  things 
in  that  island,  nothing  has  been  discovered  there  of 
equal  interest,  altho  excavations  have  been  carried  on 
at  many  points  and  a  vast  amount  of  material  has  been 
gathered  by  archeologists,  especially  from  the  pre- 
historic era.  When  St.  Paul  came  to  the  island  the 
great  shrine  of  Aphrodite  was  glorious,  and  as  we 
now  know,  the  high  priest  of  the  goddess  had  at  least 
as  much  authority  as  the  proconsul.  Many  inscriptions 
from  Paphos  have  recently  been  published.^"^  Among 
these  one  of  the  most  interesting  is  a  marble  block 
copied  by  Cesnola  but  recently  recopied  with  more  care : 

"Apollonius  to  his  father  .  ,  .  and  to  his  mother  .  .  . 
consecrated  the  enclosure  and  this  monument  .  .  .  having  filled 
the  offices  of  clerk  at  this  market,  prefect,  town-clerk,  and  high 
priest,  and  having  been  in  charge  of  the  record  office.  Erected  on 
the  25th  of  the  month  Demarchusius,  in  the  year  13.  He  also 
revised  the  Senate  by  means  of  assessors  in  the  time  of  the  pro- 
consul Paulus."  ^"^ 

*""*  Extract  from  a  private  letter  received  in  January,  1917. 
"^  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies.  Vol.  IX. 
'"'Ibid.,  pp.  114,  lis. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       553 

There  is  no  good  reason  for  doubting  that  this  pro- 
consul was  the  Sergius  Paulus  mentioned  in  Acts  13, 
he  being  the  only  governor  of  that  name,  so  far  as 
known,  who  ever  held  office  in  Cyprus.  The  lettering 
is  of  the  first  century,  being  dated  by  scholars  about 
A.D.  55.  This  inscription  shows  that  the  name  of  the 
proconsul  was  actually  spelled  in  Cyprus  as  Luke 
spelled  it.  It  may  be  mentioned  in  conclusion  that  the 
embalmed  body  of  Spyridion,  a  shepherd  bishop  of 
Cyprus  who  attended  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  is  to  this 
day  carried  twice  a  year  about  the  streets  in  proces- 
sion, so  that  "one  may  still  look  upon  the  hands  which 
signed  the  Nicaean  creed."  ^"^ 

(7)    ASSOS 

Important  excavations  were  carried  out  in  188 1- 
1889  in  Assos  by  the  Archaeological  Institute  of 
America.  It  was  found  that  around  the  sides  of  the 
Acropolis — which  is  located  in  the  crater  of  an  extinct 
volcano — ran  narrow  paved  streets  rising  tier  upon  tier 
in  terraces.  Upon  the  top  of  the  Acropolis  the  temple 
of  Athena  was  located.  The  market-place  is  the  most 
complete  and  interesting  Greek  agora  known.  A  Greek 
bath  in  three  stories  was  uncovered,  and  the  remains  of 
a  Christian  church  were  found  on  the  site  of  an  old 
Roman  bath  which  had  been  built  a.d.  14-37.  Dr.  A. 
G.  Clark  remarks  that  Assos  became  Christian  at  an 
early  date  "perhaps  in  some  measure  as  a  result  of  the 
visit  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke  .  .  .  but  more  probably 
from  the  proximity  of  the  seven  churches  in  Asia." 

The  temple  of  Assos,  Doric  in  type  like  that  of  the 
temple  at  Pergamum,  was  dedicated  to  Athena  Polias. 

'""George  Hodges,  The  Early  Church  (1915),  p.  131. 


554     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Among  the  inscriptions  is  a  decree  dating  from  the 
accession  of  Caligula  a.d.  37.  The  oath  of  the  pagan 
citizens  is  well  worth  recording: 

"We  swear  by  the  Saviour  and  God,  Caesar  Augustus,  and  by 
the  pure  Virgin  (i.e.,  Athena  PoHas),  whom  our  fathers  wor- 
shiped, that  we  will  be  faithful  to  Gaius  Csesar  Augustus  and  all 
his  house." 

Another  inscription  of  the  Roman  period  found  at 
Mytelene  in  1880  gives  a  curious  funereal  monument 
to  a  dog: 

"Parthenope  his  dog,  with  whom  in  life  it  was  his  wont  to 
play,  Anaxeos  here  hath  buried,  for  the  pleasure  that  she  gave 
bestowing  this  return.  Affection,  then,  even  in  a  dog  possesseth 
its  reward  such  as  she  hath  whoever  in  her  life  kind  to  her  master 
now  receives  this  tomb.  See,  then,  thou  make  some  friend  who 
in  thy  life  will  love  thee  well  and  care  for  thee  when  dead  " 

Another  inscription,  of  sufficient  interest  to  be  men- 
tioned, tells  of  Eutyches,  who  was  elected,  by  a  guild 
of  linen  weavers,  "director  of  the  market"  three  terms 
in  succession;  another,  a.d.  153,  gives  the  name  of  the 
victor  that  year  in  the  "boxing  contest  and  race  in 
armor."''' 

(8)    MILETUS 

Sir  Charles  Thomas  Newton  nearly  sixty  years  ago 
did  some  excavating  in  this  city,  finding  the  ruins  of 
the  celebrated  temple  of  Apollo,  which  was  connected 
with  the  port  on  the  north  of  the  Sacred  Way,  flanked 
on  each  side  by  a  row  of  tombs  and  statues.  He  took  ten 
statues  from  this  sacred  street,  and  a  lion  and  a  sphinx. 
These  statues  were  seated  in  chairs,  and  it  was  dis- 
covered that  the  citizens  of  Miletus  dedicated  them  as 

^Tor  many  other  inscriptions  see  Papers  of  the  Archcoological  In- 
stitute of  America,  Classical  Series,  1882,  1885.  1890,  1898,  1902. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       555 

a  tithe  to  Apollo.  This  temple  was  the  chief  sanctuary 
'of  the  island,  and  Dr.  Wiegand,  during  a  long  and 
successful  series  of  excavations,  begun  in  1899  and 
continued  for  eleven  years,  found  that  the  public 
treaties  and  official  records  of  Miletus  were  kept  here. 
Five  hundred  years  before  St.  Paul  landed,  this 
was  the  chief  city  of  Greece,  celebrated  for  its  litera- 
ture, especially  in  history  and  philosophy,  but  in  the 
Roman  age  it  dwindled  to  a  commonplace  commercial 
town.  The  poet  Timotheus  (446-357  b.c.)  lived  here, 
and  also  Aspasia,  the  famous  literary  woman  who  be- 
came a  friend  of  Pericles.  There  can  still  be  seen  the 
magnificent  ruins  of  a  Roman  theater,  excavated  by 
Wiegand,  as  large  as  the  largest  in  Asia  Minor,  hav- 
ing 450  feet  frontage,  and  a  nymphseum  of  the  age  of 
Titus,  also  a  number  of  other  important  Roman  build- 
ings which  must  have  come  under  Paul's  eyes. 
A  Jewish  inscription  in  the  theater  reads : 
"Place  of  the  Jews,  who  are  also  God-fearing." 

The  secularization  of  the  Jews  is  shown  in  a  most 
interesting  way  by  this  inscription  which  was  put  up  in 
a  pagan  theater  by  worshipers  of  the  one  God  or  put 
up  for  them  by  the  theater  authorities.^^" 

In  the  same  theater  was  a  late  Christian  protective 
charm  written  in  a  strange  symbolic  manner  in  which 
the  seven  vowels  are  arranged  as  would  be  natural  in 
incantations,  after  which  comes  the  prayer: 

"O  Holy  One,  keep  the  city  of  Miletus,  and  all  that  dwell 
therein." 

At  the  bottom  is  written  in  large  letters: 

"Archangels,  keep  the  city  of  the  Milesians  and  all  that  dwell 
therein."   .    .    . 

""  See  Deissmann,  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  pp.  446-455. 


556     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

This  is  probably  a  Christian  memorial  of  the  period 
when  the  theater  was  converted  into  a  citadel. 

(9)    RHODES 

Much  light  has  been  thrown  on  Rhodes  in  late 
years.  Some  350  inscriptions  have  been  discovered 
since  Mr.  Hamilton  found  the  first  in  1837,  and  a  large 
number  of  statuettes,  vases,  coins,  gems,  etc.,  have 
been  deposited  in  various  museums.  These  inscrip- 
tions show  that  the  labor  and  social  guilds  were  open 
to  all,  women  as  well  as  men,  slaves  and  foreigners  in- 
cluded. Helios  was  the  great  god  of  Rhodes,  to  whom 
horses  were  sacrificed.  The  Rhodians  also  sacrificed 
to  the  god  of  good  luck  before  setting  out  upon  a 
voyage,  so  that  Paul  and  his  party  may  have  witnessed 
this  act.  When  Tiberius  lived  in  the  island  there  were 
many  Chaldeans  here.  The  Jewish  influence  was  also 
very  strong.  An  ancient  tradition  declares  that  Paul 
stopt  here  just  before  he  wrote  his  pastoral  epistles/" 

(10)    C^SAREA 

Vast  remains  showing  many  buildings  dating  from 
Paul's  day  existed  here  as  late  as  1884,  since  which 
time  they  have  suffered  much  mutilation.  There  can 
still  be  seen,  however,  remains  of  a  temple  dedicated 
to  Csesar,  a  theater,  a  hippodrome,  an  aqueduct,  and  a 
gigantic  mole  built  of  stones  fifty  feet  long  to  protect 
the  harbor,  on  the  edge  of  which  is  a  remarkable  ruin 
which,  tho  it  may  not  represent  the  dungeon  where 
Paul  spent  several  years,  suggests,  at  least,  the  kind  of 
a  prison  in  which  he  was  incarcerated.  We  have  pre- 
viously given  a  Christian  epitaph  which  the  writer 
brought  from  this  site. 

"'  See  for  a  fine  description,  Rhodes  in  Ancient  Times,  by  Cecil  Torr. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       557 

(11)    CRETE  AND   MELITA 

Nothing  needs  to  be  added  to  the  proof  furnished 
by  Mr.  James  Smith  fifty  years  ago  of  the  nautical 
accuracy  of  Luke's  narrative  so  far  as  Crete  and  Mehta 
and  the  entire  voyage  to  Rome  are  concerned.  He 
proved  by  admiralty  charts  and  a  study  of  the  tides  the 
remarkable  accuracy  of  the  narrative.  Modern  excava- 
tions have  had  chiefly  to  do  with  prehistoric  or  early 
historic  civilization,  showing  beyond  question  that 
Homer's  stories  of  Achsean  splendor  were  no  idle  tales. 
In  the  harbor  extension  works  of  1865,  workmen 
brought  up  from  a  depth  of  fourteen  feet  two  frag- 
ments of  white  marble  columns,  and  the  torso  of  a 
statue  of  Artemis;  another  fragment  was  excavated 
1877.  The  chief  ancient  building  near  the  harbor  was 
the  temple  of  Astarte  (later,  Juno).  It  has  been  fully 
proved  that  the  official  title  of  the  leading  official  in 
the  Roman  era  was  "chief  man"  (jiQcoxog).  Local  tra- 
dition fixes  the  site  of  Paul's  landing  on  the  northeast- 
ern portion  of  the  island,  where  the  bay  as  well  as  a 
little  church  bear  his  name. 

(12)    SYRACUSE 

St.  Paul's  relations  with  this  city  were  so  brief  and 
comparatively  unimportant  that  we  can  no  more  than 
mention  a  very  few  facts  concerning  it,  notwithstand- 
ing the  enormous  number  of  antiquities  which  remain 
here.  The  cathedral,  which  was  erected  about  a.d.  640, 
is  built  into  a  noble  Doric  temple  dating  from  the  fifth 
century  before  Christ,  which  was  probably  a  temple  of 
Athena;  the  length  of  the  temple  must  have  been  at 
least  160  feet,  and  its  breadth  70  feet.  Some  of  the 
majestic  columns  still  remain  to  testify  to  its  ancient 


558     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

splendor.  Imposing  ruins  remain  of  a  temple  dedicated 
to  Apollo  of  even  greater  magnificence,  as  well  as  re- 
mains of  the  largest  ancient  theater  in  Sicily — about 
440  feet  in  diameter — and  of  an  amphitheater  cut  out 
of  the  living  rock  by  Augustus.  A  wonderful  fortress 
dating  from  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  represent- 
ing probably  the  most  imposing  of  all  known  Greek 
fortresses,  shows  the  complicated  system  of  under- 
ground passages  sometimes  connected  with  such  build- 
ings. 

However,  the  most  interesting  constructions  in 
Syracuse  to  the  Christian  visitor  are  the  early  Chris- 
tian catacombs — "the  Grottos  of  St.  John."  They 
really  represent  an  entire  underground  city  with 
several  stories  of  streets  and  squares  and  circular 
halls  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  with  arched  tombs  and 
large  funeral  chambers,  closed  by  locked  doors,  lining 
the  streets.  Christian  frescos  adorn  the  walls,  much 
resembling  those  of  Rome;  tho  as  a  whole  these  cata- 
combs are  much  superior,  showing  a  degree  of  wealth 
and  architectural  elaborateness  unknown  elsewhere.^^^ 

(13)    PUTEOLI 

From  the  hill  close  to  Puteoli  St.  Paul  would  have 
obtained  his  first  view  of  Vesuvius  and  the  most  beauti- 
ful bay  in  the  world;  by  a  short  ride  or  long  walk  he 
could  have  reached  either  Pompeii  or  Herculaneum. 
However,  this  city  especially  deserves  notice  because 
it  was  probably  the  end  of  St.  Paul's  sea  voyage  on 
his  way  to  Rome. 

This  was,  indeed,  the  port  of  Rome,  Ostia  being  a 
rival  port  tho  not  so  popular  because  its  harbor  was 

^  See  especially  E.  Manceri,  Siracusa,  1904. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       559 

not  so  good.  When  St.  Paul  landed  here,  a.d.  61,  it 
was  a  beautiful  city  surrounded  by  villas,  of  which 
Cicero's  is  the  most  noted,  and  containing  great  san- 
itariums connected  with  the  mineral  springs  located 
here.  Part  of  the  massive  artificial  mole  connected 
with  the  harbor  is  still  in  existence,  together  with  the 
fine  ruins  of  a  large  amphitheater,  the  market  hall, 
which  was  surrounded  by  a  colonnade  of  thirty-six 
columns  of  marble  and  granite,  a  circus,  tombs,  a 
temple  of  Augustus  in  which  the  cathedral  of  St. 
Proculus  was  built,  and  a  number  of  other  ancient 
monuments.  The  amphitheater  was  very  large,  being 
comparable  to  the  Colosseum  at  Rome,  and  the  sub- 
terranean parts  were  found  intact,  even  to  the  holes 
which  contained  the  trapdoors  by  which  the  wild 
beasts  were  let  into  the  arena.  This  magnificent  build- 
ing was  probably  erected  in  the  reign  of  Vespasian, 
but  another  large  amphitheater  has  just  been  found, 
perhaps  the  very  one  in  which  Nero  fought.^^^  This 
newly  discovered  building  shows  the  upper  apertures 
of  entrances  and  exits,  together  with  many  fragments 
of  the  gilded  and  colored  stucco  from  the  walls,  thus 
proving  the  former  magnificence  of  its  decorations.  In 
Paul's  day  Puteoli  (now  Pozzuoli)  was  one  of  the 
most  famous  commercial  ports  of  the  world.  The 
Puteoli  pottery  was  almost  equal  to  the  best  made 
in  Italy.  But  besides  local  wares  this  v/as  the  center 
from  which  wheat  from  Egypt,  and  iron  from  Elba, 
and  other  products  from  far  distant  lands  were  dis- 
tributed. Sulphur,  alum,  perfumes,  mosaics,  earth  for 
ceramics,  and  glass  cups  with  views  of  Puteolian 
scenery  were  among  the  chief  objects  of  local  trade. 

"Mr/  and  Archceology,  1916,  p.  179. 


56o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  Eastern  merchants  found  it  necessary  to  estabhsh 
residences  here,  and  one  text  which  has  been  found  is 
a  letter  (a.d.  174)  from  local  Phoenician  merchants 
asking  the  senate  of  Tyre  to  undertake  the  payment  of 
the  rent  of  their  factory.  The  fact  that  the  senate 
agreed  to  this  shows  the  value  of  this  trade  inter- 
nationally. The  docks  in  Paul's  day  were  so  large  as 
to  accommodate  not  only  the  big  grain  ships  but  also  the 
larger  boats  which  carried  the  obelisks  of  Egypt  to 
this  port. 

(14)    FROM  PUTEOLI  TO  ROME 

It  was  170  miles  from  here  to  Rome,  and  Paul  prob- 
ably went  by  the  ordinary  route,  which  was  to  leave 
Puteoli  by  the  Via  Consularis,  striking  the  Appian 
Way  at  Capua,  twenty  miles  farther  north.  Two  days 
after  leaving  Capua  the  party  would  arrive  at  Ter- 
racina,  about  seventy-five  miles  from  Rome,  and  pass 
from  here  through  the  celebrated  Pontine  marshes,  the 
boat  being  towed  by  mules  through  the  canal — a  long, 
dreary  journey,  of  which  several  ancient  travelers  com- 
plain. They  must  all  have  been  glad  to  reach  the 
Appii  Forum,  forty-three  miles  from  the  capitol.  From 
here,  with  some  fellow  Christians  who  came  to  meet 
them,  they  passed  on  to  the  Three  Taverns,  where  they 
again  broke  their  journey.  Both  of  these  places  are 
well  known.  The  only  thing  that  now  remains,  of 
ancient  date,  at  the  Appii  Forum  is  the  old  milestone; 
but  we  remember  that  Cicero  records  that  he  wrote  a 
letter  from  here,  and  Horace  tells  how  he  stayed  over 
night  with  a  surly  landlord  at  the  Three  Taverns,  the 
whole  place  being  "stufifed  with  sailors."  Some  of  the 
tombs  which  line  the  highway  from  here  to  Rome  still 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       561 

catch  the  eye  of  the  traveler,  for  here  were  the 
sepulchral  monuments  of  Rome's  richest  and  noblest — ■ 
tombs  such  as  those  of  Gallianus,  Pompey,  etc.  About 
four  miles  from  the  city  they  must  have  passed  the 
villa  of  Seneca  in  which  he  committed  suicide  five  or 
six  years  later,  and  at  the  third  mile  the  well-known 
tomb  of  Cicilia  Metella,  which  yet  impresses  all  ob- 
servers; and  one  mile  from  the  gates  the  newly  erected 
tomb  of  Drusus,  brother  of  Tiberius. 

7.  Side-lights  from  Cities  Mentioned  in  the  Book 

OF  Revelation  or  Influential  in  the 

Early   Church 

(1)  EPHESUS 

The  remarkable  excavations  on  this  site  have 
already  been  recounted. 

(2)  SMYRNA 

No  excavations  worthy  of  the  name  have  as  yet 
been  made  here;  but  visitors  can  still  make  out  the 
plan  of  the  ancient  stadium  and  a  few  other  ancient 
buildings,  and  every  visitor  is  shown  the  traditional  spot 
where  Polycarp,  the  friend  and  neighbor  of  St.  John, 
was  martyred  (a.d.  155),  saying:  "Eighty  and  six 
years  have  I  served  him,  and  he  hath  done  me  no 
wrong.  How  then  can  I  speak  evil  of  my  King  who 
saved  me?" 

It  was  a  very  ancient  city,  claiming  to  be  the  birth- 
place of  Homer.  It  was  on  the  highway  between  Lydia 
and  the  West,  and  so  was  a  commercial  city  of  prom- 
inence. Above  everything  else  it  prided  itself  upon 
its  beauty  and  its  faithfulness  to  all  treaties.     Every 


562     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

traveler  even  yet  is  imprest  with  the  sparkHng  beauty 
of  the  bay  and  the  crown  of  buildings  encircling  the 
hill,  which  is  the  most  prominent  part  of  the  view  from 
the  harbor.  In  ancient  times  this  hill  was  encircled 
by  a  street  so  glorious  that  it  was  called  "the  Golden," 
and  this  street  was  lined  by  palaces  and  temples  and 
crowned  by  the  acropolis,  while  the  temple  of  Cybele, 
the  tutelary  goddess,  situated  in  the  east,  just  outside 
the  city  proper,  was  the  brilliant  pendant  to  this  neck- 
lace or  crown  of  architectural  jewels.  Sir  William 
Ramsay  quotes  Aristides,  who  compares  this  to  the 
crown  of  Ariadne  in  the  heavenly  constellation;  and 
he  believes  the  Revelator  had  this  aspect  of  the  city 
in  mind  when  he  promised  to  the  faithful  in  Smyrna  a 
"crown  of  life." 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  refers  to  this  popular  pride 
when  he  advises  the  citizens,  "It  is  a  greater  charm  to 
wear  a  crown  of  men  than  a  crown  of  porticoes  and 
pictures  and  gold.'"'  ^-^ 

For  centuries  before  the  Christian  era  Smyrna  had 
been  celebrated  for  its  trustworthiness.  Cicero  calls 
it  the  "city  of  our  most  faithful  and  most  ancient 
allies,"  and  he  who  knew  better  than  any  other  the 
struggle  of  the  little  primitive  Christian  church  here 
had  no  word  of  rebuke  for  it,  but  only  says,  "Continue 
to  be  faithful"  (Rev.  2:  10). 

The  reference  to  the  "synagog  of  Satan"  with 
which  the  early  disciples  had  to  contend  reminds  Sir 
William  Ramsay  that  altho  Polycarp  was  martyred  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  the  Jews  broke  the  law  in  order  to 
bring  faggots  for  this  human  bonfire. 

"*  Ramsay,  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches,  1906,  pp.  251-280. 


NEW   LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       563 

(3)    PERGAMUM 

Of  the  seven  cities  mentioned  in  Revelation  the 
only  ones  distinguished  for  their  architectural  and 
artistic  remains  are  Ephesus,  Sardis,  and  Pergamum. 
No  one  of  the  seven  cities  could  be  compared  with 
Pergamum  in  the  matter  of  art.  In  the  second  century 
before  Christ  a  new  school  of  sculpture  arose  here 
which  rivaled  in  achievement  anything  ever  done  be- 
fore or  since  in  this  world.  A  vast  quantity  of  these 
art  treasures  have  been  excavated;  but,  unfortunately, 
with  the  exception  of  some  important  remains  from 
the  Church  of  St.  John  the  Theologian,  almost  all  of 
the  larger  monuments  are  pagan,  not  Christian."^ 

Excavations  begun  here  by  the  Berlin  Museum  as 
early  as  1878  have  been  carried  on  with  little  interrup- 
tion ever  since,  the  later  work  being  done  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Imperial  German  Institute  of 
Archeology.  The  decorations  of  the  "Great  Altar"  of 
Zeus  almost  rival  in  strength  and  artistic  power  the 
famous  frieze  of  the  Parthenon.  The  Battle  of  the 
Giants  is  perhaps  the  most  terrific  scene  ever  repre- 
sented in  marble. 

The  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Asclepios  "the  Saviour," 
to  which  royal  patients  came  for  healing  from  every 
land,  was  magnificent  beyond  all  possible  description. 
Dorpfeld,  in  19 10,  reported  finding  what  was  probably  a 
shrine  where  the  "mysteries"  were  celebrated  under 
this  temple."^  The  city  was  devoted  to  the  Roman  em- 
perors, and  was  the  first  provincial  city  to  establish  the 
imperial  cult.  A  large  temple  in  Corinthian  style  has  been 

"^  It  will  be   remembered  that   Pergamum  was  also  the  place  where 
parchment  was  invented,  receiving  its  name  from  this  city. 

"°  Felix  Sarteaux,  Villes  niortes  d'Asie  Mineure,  1916,  pp.  43-45. 


564    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

found  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  Trajan  and  Hadrian, 
and  another  honoring  Caracalla.  The  early  Christians 
were  opposed  here  by  the  most  brilHant  form  of 
paganism.  Many  of  them  favored  compromise  with 
the  old  religion  and  outward  observance  of  the  forms 
of  worship  which  would  permit  them  to  take  their 
places  in  business  and  social  life;  but  St.  John  de- 
clares in  the  strongest  way  against  these  Nicolaitans. 
Sir  William  Ramsay  thinks  that  when  the  altar  of  Zeus 
was  dug  up  here  a  few  years  ago  the  excavators  were 
actually  looking  upon  the  very  "seat  (or  throne)  of 
Satan"  of  which  the  book  of  Revelation  speaks.  The 
four  leading  deities  of  the  municipality  were  Zeus, 
Athena,  Dionysos,  and  Asclepios.  In  order  to  show 
the  reader  something  of  the  splendor  of  these  temples 
we  give  photographs  of  some  recently  discovered 
works  of  art.^" 

(4)    THYATIRA 

This  was,  as  Sir  William  Ramsay  has  pointed  out, 
a  garrison  city  whose  strength  lay  in  its  position  be- 
tween the  rival  powers  of  Syria  and  Pergamum.  The 
coins  represent  the  god  of  the  city  with  a  battle-ax 
upon  his  shoulder;  but  in  reality  the  city  was  not 
properly  symbolized  by  a  sword  or  battle-ax,  but  very 
appropriately  by  a  blacksmith's  bar,  since  it  was  famous 
for  its  bronze  work  (cf.  Rev.  2:27).  The  smiths  of 
Thyatira  were  united  in  a  rather  celebrated  guild  or 
labor  union,  and  doubtless  this  was  true  also  of  the 
manufacturers  of  garments  and  of  the  dealers  in  purple 
cloth  such  as  Lydia  sold  (Acts  16:  40) ;  for  there  w^ere 

"^For  fine  plans  and  reproductions  of  the  Agora,  altar  of  Zeus,  and 
temple  of  Athena  Palias,  see  Pergame,  by  E.  Pontremoli  and  M.  Collignon, 
1900,  and  especially  Konigliche  Museum,  Altertilmcr  von  Pergamon  (I-III). 


NEW    LIGHT    FRO.AI    FAMOUS    CITIES       565 

more  trade  guilds  in  this  city  than  in  any  other  in 
Asia.  The  famous  purple  garments  in  which  Lydia 
dealt  were  not  made  with  Phenician  dyes,  as  was  once 
supposed,  but  rather,  without  doubt,  with  a  Thyatiran 
product,  probably  the  "Turkey  red"  made  from  the 
madder  root.  The  unusual  liberty  given  here  to  women 
is  indicated  not  only  by  the  position  attained  by  Lydia 
but  also  by  the  tremendous  influence  in  religious  affairs 
exercised  by  Jezebel  (Rev.  2:  20).  This  woman  teacher 
seems  to  have  had  a  good  moral  character,  but  she 
believed  in  compromising  with  paganism  and,  probably 
as  a  Gnostic,  taught  that  the  material  world  was 
merely  a  false  claim  of  the  senses.  As  no  citizens 
could  cultivate  art  or  music  or  mingle  in  political  or 
social  life  without  accommodating  themselves  to  pagan 
ritual,  her  position  must  have  seemed  well  taken  to 
many  educated,  broad-minded  people.  But  as  Sir 
William  Ramsay  says,  Christianity  would  have  disap- 
peared if  it  had  not  been  brave  and  outspoken  in  its 
opposition  to  the  popular  beliefs  and  customs. 

(5)    SARDIS 

The  very  recent  discoveries  at  Sardes  (Bible, 
"Sardis")  have  thrown  brilliant  and  unexpected  light 
upon  the  Diana  worship  mentioned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment (Acts  19:24-35).  The  excavations  began  in 
March,  1910,  being  conducted  by  Prof.  Howard  Crosby 
Butler  of  Princeton,  and  were  examined  by  the  writer 
in  191 3  when  the  work  was  well  under  way.  The 
ancient  Lydian  necropolis  on  the  mountainside  across 
from  the  temple,  with  its  multitude  of  Lydian  inscrip- 
tions, particularly  the  bilingual  text  from  the  tenth  year 
of  Artaxerxes  written  in  Lydian  and  Aramaic,  may  for 


566    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

the  historian  be  the  most  important  of  all  Professor 
Butler's  discoveries  at  this  ancient  capital  of  Lydia; 
but  to  the  Bible  student  the  majestic  temple  of  Artemis 
stands  supreme.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Perga- 
mum,  Smyrna,  Ephesus,  and  Sardis  were  neighboring 
cities,  the  three  former  each  claiming  in  the  first  cen- 
tury the  title  of  "First  City  of  Asia";  but  Sardis  in- 
disputably held  the  highest  position  of  honor  in  the 
ancient  history  of  Lydia.  The  worship  of  Diana  or 
Artemis  occupied  the  same  central  position  and  fol- 
lowed the  same  cult  here  as  at  Ephesus.  A  few  of 
the  mighty  pillars  of  this  ancient  temple  had  been 
always  visible,  but  the  American  expedition  cleared  the 
site  completely,  finding  a  marble  octastyle  building,  320 
by  150  feet,  with  twenty  columns  on  either  side,  thirteen 
of  these  columns  still  standing  to  a  height  of  thirty 
feet  and  two  others  to  the  height  of  sixty  feet.  The 
architectural  details  have  surprized  all  observers  with 
their  beauty.  The  specimens  of  Ionic  ornament  dating 
from  the  fourth  century  before  Christ  are  equal  to 
anything  the  writer  knows  outside  of  Greece."^  The 
temple  was  roofed  and  in  use  300  b.c.^  but  in  a.d.  17  was 
badly  damaged  by  the  earthquake  which  destroyed  the 
city,  the  calamity  being  so  great  that  Tiberius  remitted 
all  its  taxes  for  five  years  and  made  a  gift  to  the  city 
of  $500,000  for  its  rebuilding.  When  the  temple  was 
finally  destroyed,  it  was  undergoing  repairs  and 
a  number  of  the  carvings  were  only  blocked  out 
when  the  worship  ceased.  It  was  in  July,  19 10,  that 
a  mortgage-deed  was  found  dating  from  300  B.C., 
v^hich  first  made  known  to  the  excavators  the  fact  that 

"*  Even  the  splendid  columns  laid  bare  by  the  Germans  at  Baalbek  do 
not  equal  these. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       567 

the  building  they  were  examining  was  a  temple  of 
Artemis.  This  mortgage  was  on  real  estate,  and  was 
given  because  *'the  temple  wardens  are  demanding 
from  me  the  gold  lent  on  deposit  and  belonging  to 
Artemis."  The  enormous  size  of  these  transactions  is 
indicated  by  the  number  of  villages  near  Sardis,  in- 
cluding slaves,  which  the  mortgager,  Mnesimachus, 
turns  over  to  the  temple  as  collateral. 

The  "temple  wardens"  supervised  all  details  con- 
nected with  the  rental  and  cultivation  of  the  temple 
land;  they  had  charge  of  the  records  and  acted  as 
guarantors  of  mortgaged  land  which  was  foreclosed 
and  sold  by  the  temple.  The  "temple-keeper"  is  also 
often  in  evidence.  Timarchus,  who  served  in  this  office 
(second  century  before  Christ),  had  been  royal 
treasurer  for  the  entire  kingdom.  It  is  a  question 
whether  the  high  priest  was  a  eunuch,  as  at  Ephesus; 
but  as  the  priestesses  at  Sardis  were  vestals,  who  were 
not  allowed  to  marry  until  their  term  of  office  expired, 
this  is  probable.  The  high  priestess  of  Artemis  was, 
however,  the  highest  official  in  the  Sardis  temple  and 
must  have  been  a  woman  of  superior  rank  and  great 
wealth,  for  she  paid  at  her  own  cost  for  the  public 
sacrifices  performed  each  month  by  the  city.^^" 

Among  the  many  remarkable  inscriptions  is  one  on 
a  block  of  bluish  marble  found  in  1910  dating  from 
the  first  century  before  Christ,  upon  which  it  is  de- 
clared that  lollas,  son  of  lollas,  is  entitled  to  "two- 
golden  wreaths  with  a  golden  portrait-effigy,  three 
marble  portrait  images,  four  painted  portraits,"  etc. 
The  probability  seems  to  be,  however,  that  the  city  did 
not  furnish  these  portraits  and  wreaths,  but  merely 
"•See  Am.  Journal  of  ArchcBology,  XVII,  31,  355#;  XVIII,  321,  425#. 


568     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

gave  to  this  honored  citizen  the  right  to  buy  them  and 
display  them.  It  is  also  interesting  to  note  that  in- 
scriptions celebrating  the  temple  cook  as  well  as  the 
singers  and  harpists  of  the  temple  have  been  discovered 
in  the  ruins.  It  is  found  that  a  singer  in  the  temple 
was  paid  better  than  the  teachers  of  literature  and  it 
is  entirely  possible  that  the  cook  received  as  much  as 
either. 

It  ought  to  be  added  that  a  very  early  Christian 
church  of  brick  was  found  at  the  east  end  of  the  temple 
entirely  preserved  excepting  for  the  loss  of  its  wooden 
roof.  There  came  great  awe,  at  least  to  one  visitor, 
as  he  entered  this  little  primitive  Christian  church  with 
its  ancient  altar  still  standing  and  looked  out  through 
its  three  modest  arched  windows  at  the  magnificence 
of  the  paganism  which  it  had  supplanted.  The  altar 
"consists  of  a  crudely  cut  block  of  sandstone  set  upon 
a  short  section  of  a  column  about  30  centimeters 
diameter.  It  is  a  true  table  altar  with  a  single  sup- 
port" (Butler).  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  rough 
block  was  perhaps  a  relic  of  a  martyr's  death. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  on  the  doorpost  of 
the  ancient  pagan  temple  were  written  certain  words 
(cpwg,  ^coT])  which  afterward  became  favorite  terms  in 
the  mysteries  and  in  Christian  literature,  notably  in 
the  gospel  of  John.  Even  then  the  term  'iight"  meant 
spiritual  illumination  and  the  term  "life"  was  used  in 
the  higher  sense.  An  inscription  which  was  found  in 
191 2  on  the  tomb  of  Artemas,  a  physician,  probably 
of  the  first  century  of  our  era,  but  possibly  of  the  first 
century  before  Christ,  closes  with  the  statement,  "He 
is  living." ''' 

''^American  Journal   of  ArchcBologv,  XV:401#;   XVI:465j7;   XVIII 
(1914)  :  35#,  325 ff;  XVII  (1913)  :  29#,  353#. 


VERY  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH  AT  SARDIS 
From  "Amerioan  Journal  of  Arohreology,"    (Vol.   IB.  p.   4761 


TEMPLE  Ol     AKI  I.Ml^    il)l.\XA)   AT   SARDIS 
From    "Aiiirrican   .louriial   of Arcli.-vologi'."    (Vol.    17.   r.   471) 


W    o 


o 

>^  2 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       569 

(6)     rillLADELPIIIA 

No  excavations  of  importance  have  been  made  on 
this  site.  However,  Sir  William  Ramsay  with  rare 
skill  has  pointed  out  certain  peculiarities  in  the  ancient 
city,  previously  overlooked,  to  which  references  are 
certainly  made  in  the  address  to  this  church  reported  in 
Revelation  3:  7-13.  This  was  not  a  military  center  but, 
because  of  its  situation,  preeminently  a  missionary 
city,  an  "apostle  of  Hellenism,"  carrying  education 
and  civilization  to  the  surrounding  country.  The 
Jewish  national  party  must  have  been  particularly 
strong  here,  as  also  in  Smyrna,  since  it  is  in  these  two 
cities  only  that  this  opposition  to  Christianity  is  men- 
tioned. In  A.D.  17,  as  Sir  William  points  out,  a  terrific 
and  long-continued  earthquake  struck  the  city,  which 
entirely  unnerved  the  population  and  caused  multitudes 
to  leave  their  homes  (cf.  Rev.  3:  12).  Tiberius  sent 
help  and  a  temple  was  then  erected  for  his  worship 
and  a  new  name  was  taken  by  the  city  in  his  honor. 
To  consent  to  the  city  becoming  his  namesake  was  one 
of  the  highest  favors  the  emperor  could  confer.  Yet 
this  new  name  disappeared  from  use  presently,  and 
about  twenty-five  years  before  the  book  of  Revelation 
was  written  the  city  took  another  "new  name"  in  honor 
of  another  emperor !  It  is  to  this  city  that  the  imperial 
Christ,  who  has  the  "key  of  David  that  openeth  and 
no  one  can  shut,"  says,  "Him  that  overcometh  will  I 
make  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  my  God,  and  he  shall  go 
no  more  out,  and  ...  I  will  write  upon  him  my  new 
name." 

The  praise  given  to  this  city  and  to  Smyrna  is 
noticeable,  and  they  have  well  deserved  it  throughout 
the  centuries.     "Those  are  the  two  cities  which  have 


570    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

been  the  bulwark  and  the  glory  of  Christian  power  in 
the  country  since  it  bt^came  Mohammedan;  they  are 
the  two  places  where  the  Christian  flag  floated  latest 
over  a  free  and  powerful  city,  and  where  even  in 
slavery  the  Christians  preserved  cohesion  among 
themselves  and  real  influence  among  the  Turkish  con- 
querors." ^^^ 

(7)    LAODICEA 

Hundreds  of  acres  are  covered  with  the  ruins  of 
this  ancient  metropolis.  Two  theaters  and  the  stadium 
are  yet  in  a  fairly  good  state  of  preservation,  but  no 
extensive  excavations  have  yet  been  made  here.  The 
church  at  Laodicea  is  supposed  to  have  been  founded 
by  Epaphras  (Col.  1:7;  4:12),  and  Paul  wrote  a 
letter  to  this  church  which  was  unfortunately  lost 
(Col.  4:  16),  unless,  indeed,  it  is  to  be  found  imbedded 
in  the  Ephesian  letter,  as  is  now  generally  believed. 

The  prosperity  of  Laodicea  began  in  Roman  time, 
and  the  city  grew  rapidly  rich,  largely  because  it  was 
situated  at  an  important  junction  of  the  imperial  road 
system.  It  was  a  marked  administrative  and  banking 
center.  Some  of  its  manufactories  were  also  famous, 
especially  those  which'  produced  a  particularly  fine  and 
glossy  black  garment  from  the  wool  of  a  certain  pecu- 
liar breed  of  black  sheep  cultivated  here.  The  Jewish 
population  was  quite  influential,  as  is  shown  from  the 
fact  that  Flaccus,  the  governor  of  Asia,  seized  in  62  B.C. 
twenty  pounds  of  gold  which  had  been  collected  in  and 
around  Laodicea  to  be  sent  to  the  poor  Jews  of 
Jerusalem  (cf.  i  Cor.  16:  i).  In  close  connection  with 
the  city  there  was  a  famous  school  of  medicine  which 

'^  Sir  William  Ramsay,  Cities  of  St.  Paul,  p.  403. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       571 

was  especially  renowned  for  its  ear  ointment  and  its 
''Phrygian'  powder"  to  cure  weak  eyes — the  latter  being 
mentioned  with  respect  as  early  as  Aristotle's  day.  It 
can  hardly  be  doubted  that  these  facts  influenced  the 
phrases  used  concerning  this  church  in  the  book  of 
Revelation:  "Because  thou  sayest  I  am  rich  ...  I 
counsel  thee  to  buy  of  me  gold  tried  in  the  fire  .  .  . 
and  white  garments  .  .  .  and  anoint  thy  eyes  with 
eye  salve  that  thou  mayest  see." 

8.  Other  Cities  Specially  Influential  in  Early 
Christianity 

One  naturally  thinks  first  of  Constantinople  since, 
for  several  centuries,  it  was  preeminently  the  dominant 
metropolis  of  Eastern  Christianity;  but  unfortunately 
no  serious  excavations  have  been  conducted  here.  In- 
deed, the  archeological  results  here  important  to  Chris- 
tianity are  confined  to  certain  ancient  walls  and  fortifi- 
cations and  a  few  ancient  relics  such  as  the  pedestal  of 
the  Eudoxia  statue  and  a  few  churches,  such  as  those 
of  S.  Sergius  and  S.  Bacchus,  and  especially  the  church 
of  St.  Sophia,  which  is  the  finest  existing  sixth  century 
monument  of  church  architecture,  originally  "the  most 
beautiful  building  in  the  world." 

In  Asia  Minor,  in  addition  to  the  cities  already 
mentioned,  Aquileia,  Nicomedia,  and  Cyzicus  may  seem 
to  demand  further  mention.  Excavations  in  the  former 
city  have  revealed  one  street  and  part  of  the  town  walls, 
while  the  local  museum  contains  over  2,000  inscrip- 
tions, besides  statues  and  other  antiquities  illuminating 
ancient  life.  Nothing  whatever  of  importance  has,  to 
the  writer's  knowledge,  been  reported  from  Nicomedia, 
excepting  some  fifth  century  columns,  a  fifth  century 


1^2     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

crypt,  and  the  outline  of  an  ancient  church.  Cyzicus 
has  yielded  a  much  larger  treasure,  but  the  excavations 
have  already  been  mentioned  sufficiently.  Few  fine 
monuments  have  been  recovered,  probably  because 
Constantine  and  Justinian  carried  off  the  rarest  and 
most  costly  marbles  to  Constantinople.  It  is  an  inter- 
esting theory,  recently  proposed,  that  the  beautiful 
clinging  and  wind-blown  drapery,  which  came  into  use 
in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  originated  in 
Cyzicus.^"^ 

It  may  be  added  that  the  Apology  of  Aristides,  if 
delivered  upon  the  dedication  of  Hadrian's  temple,  as 
usually  supposed,  can  now  be  exactly  dated,  since 
Hasluck's  researches  have  shown  that  this  temple  was 
dedicated  a.d.  139. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  texts  gives  a  hymn  to 
Serapis  and  Isis  in  a  lyrical  meter  and  "excessively 
crabbed  Greek."  ^^^  All  that  we  know  about  the  re- 
ligion of  Cyzicus  has  been  carefully  systematized  by 
Sir  William  Ramsay.  This  distinguished  scholar  also 
believes  that  St.  Paul  passed  close  to  Cyzicus  on  his 
way  to  Troas;  but  this  part  of  the  apostle's  route  is 
too  obscure  to  be  fixt  with  certainty.^^* 

Two  other  cities  in  Italy  ought  to  be  mentioned — 
Milan  and  Ravenna.  The  church  of  S.  Ambrogio  at 
Milan,  built  by  Ambrose,  still  shows  the  pillar  where 
the  Lombard  kings  were  crowned,  and  its  wooden  doors 
probably  date  back  to  the  fourth  century.  At  Ravenna 
we  can  see,  better  than  any  place  else  in  the  world,  the 
early  Christian  basilica  of  the  finest  type  almost  un- 

"^^  American  Journal  of  Archcrology,  1915,  p.  475. 
'^  Corpus  inscriptionarum  Grecarum,  Xo.  3734. 

'"*  See  especially  Ramsay,  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  "Hierapolis" ;  F.  W. 
Hasluck,  Cyzicus  in  Mysie,  1910. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       573 

touched  in  its  architecture  and  mosaic  decorations.  The 
tomb  of  Galla  Placidia,  built  a.d.  450,  is  probably  the 
earliest  building  here,  a  small  cruciform  structure  with 
a  dome  on  pendentives  over  the  center.  The  baptistry 
of  St.  John,  dating  almost  as  early,  is  a  plain  octagonal 
building,  forty  feet  in  diameter,  containing  paintings, 
stucco  reliefs,  and  mosaics  dating  from  the  fifth  cen- 
tury. Three  churches  date  from  the  sixth  century,  one 
of  which  (San  Vitale)  has  a  curious  dome  built  of 
hollow  pots,  the  other  two,  tho  small,  are  of  especial 
importance,  since  they  were  originally  built  of  new 
materials,  and  not  from  more  ancient  constructions;  so 
that  the  Christian  architecture  of  the  sixth  century  can 
be  examined  here  without  fear  of  confounding  it  with 
earlier  work.  It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that 
comparatively  little  remains  of  the  untouched  original 
buildings. 

In  Africa  the  two  chief  centers  of  early  Christianity 
were  Alexandria  and  Carthage.  So  far  as  Alexandria 
is  concerned  the  ancient  city  lies  either  beneath  the 
sea  or  under  modern  edifices,  so  that  nothing  of  great 
value  can  be  reported  as  recently  discovered  here;'^'^ 
but  ancient  Carthage  has  been  resurrected  in  modern 
times.  Some  one  has  said  that  if  Palestine  may  be 
called  the  cradle  of  early  Christianity,  Carthage  was 
its  nursery.  It  was  here  that  Tertullian  was  born  and 
Cyprian  was  martyred ;  and  it  was  here  that  Augustine, 
who  controlled  the  theology  of  Christendom  for  nearly 
1500  years,  was  educated.  The  beauty  of  the  short 
ride  from  Tunis  to  the  site  of  ancient  Carthage  can 
never  be  forgotten,  and  as  the  waiter  can  testify,  the 

'^  For  a  statement  of  what  has  heen  done  see  the  author's  article,  "Alex- 
andria," in  the  International  Standard  Bible  Encyclopcedia. 


574     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

view  from  the  Brysa  hill,  the  citadel  of  Dido,  is 
positively  intoxicating.  The  ruins  of  the  ancient 
amphitheater  are  plainly  visible,  and  in  the  center  is 
a  marble  pillar  in  memory  of  the  many  martyrs  who 
there  suffered  death,  and  also  a  small  chapel  in  special 
memory  of  the  martyrdom  (a.d.  203)  of  St.  Perpetua, 
St.  Felicitas,  and  their  companions.  Pere  Delattre, 
who,  representing  the  White  Fathers  of  Carthage,  has 
made  remarkable  excavations  here  during  the  past 
generation,  has  found  an  ancient  inscription  near  this 
palace  specifically  mentioning  these  martyrs  by  name. 

Three  cemeteries  have  yielded  rich  treasure  to  the 
White  Fathers.  Unfortunately  the  best  preserved 
sepulchral  monuments'  are  those  from  the  most  ancient 
period  of  Carthage's  history.  Yet  it  is  something  to 
dig  up  the  life  history  of  this  place  in  the  era  of 
Salammbo  and  Hannibal,  especially  as  it  is  now  found 
that  many  of  the  ancient  customs  were  carried  over 
into  the  Christian  era.  The  priests  with  their  tonsured 
heads — and  the  sacred  razors  with  which  they  were 
shaved;  the  golden  necklaces  and  pendants  and  signet 
rings ;  the  rouge  boxes,  of  the  era  of  Jezebel,  the  disc 
of  Tanith  and  the  crescent  of  Astarte,  and  many  other 
ancient  relics,  find  their  duplicates  in  North  Africa 
even  in  the  twentieth  century. 

The  necropolis  of  St.  Louis  was  first  touched  as 
early  as  1880,  but  the  main  work  there  was  done 
1889-90.  The  necropolis  of  Douimes  is  the  oldest  of 
all.  It  was  in  1892  that  an  Arab  brought  to  Pere 
Delattre,  arch-priest  of  Carthage,  some  small  remains 
which  led  to  the  first  excavation  here.  By  1893  he  had 
opened  60  tombs,  and  by  1894  as  many  as  150.  In  1897 
the  richest  necropolis  of  all,Bord-el-Djeded,  was  opened. 


NEW    LIGHT    FROM    FAMOUS    CITIES       575 

It  is  absolutely  impossible  to  describe  in  any  detail 
the  wealth  of  rich  material  found  at  Carthage.  Per- 
haps one  of  the  most  exciting  moments  in  the  life  of 
Pere  Delattre  was  when  he  brought  to  light  an  ancient 
Carthaginian  priestess  buried  in  a  superb  anthropoid 
sarcophagus,  with  the  painted  representation  of  its  dis- 
tinguished owner  engraved  upon  it.  The  priestess' 
beauty  was  a  revelation.  The  brilliancy  of  coloring 
and  the  fine  raiment  does  not  impress  the  observer  as 
does  the  noble  dignity  and  beauty  of  this  ancient  high- 
priestess.  At  her  right  hand  was  buried  a  priest,  rep- 
resented as  clad  in  a  long  tunic,  reaching  to  his  feet, 
which  were  shod  with  red  sandals;  his  right  hand  was 
raised;  his  left  hand  held  a  sacred  vessel,  while  his 
toga  fell  gracefully  from  his  left  shoulder.  Another 
priest  in  a  tomb  not  far  away  had  his  purse  around  his 
neck — as  is  yet  the  custom — and  wore  a  gold  ring  on 
which  was  engraved  his  own  profile 

But  the  Jewish  and  Christian  remains,  tho  com- 
paratively few,  are  to  us  the  most  interesting.  The 
story  of  finding  these  is  entrancing.  One  day  a  little 
negro  child,  who  was  in  the  Roman  Catholic  orphanage, 
noticed  some  Arabs  about  to  destroy  a  subterranean 
catacomb  in  order  to  make  lime  from  the  marble 
sarcophagi  and  inscriptions.  One  of  the  inscriptions 
especially  struck  the  attention  of  the  little  negro — 
in  pace — and  he  hastened  to  tell  the  father-director  of 
what  was  being  done. 

Pere  Delattre  hurried  to  the  place  and  found  that 
this  tomb,  which  had  been  the  dwelling-place  of  hyenas 
for  centuries,  was  in  the  midst  of  an  ancient  Jewish 
cemetery,  where  Columbo  and  Fortunata,  Alexander 
and  many  other  Hebrews  had  been  buried,  with  the 


576    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

seven-branched  candlestick  and  odicr  Jewish  emblems 
carved  on  their  tombs.  Some  Christian  graves  were 
also  found,  and  the  museum  contains  scores  and  per- 
haps hundreds  of  lamps  just  such  as  are  found  in  the 
catacombs  of  Rome,  some  stamped  with  the  cross, 
others  with  the  dove.  Representations  are  also  found 
of  Jonah  and  the  whale,  the  Hebrew  children  in  the 
fiery  furnace,  Daniel  in  the  lion's  den,  Christ  bearing 
his  cross,  etc. 

We  have  already  mentioned  a  mosaic  of  a 
chariot  race  discovered  at  Carthage,  March,  191 5,  and 
will  now  add  that  many  magic  spells  written  on  metal 
discs  were  found,  which  represent  the  incantations  of 
jockeys  or  gamblers  who  sought  in  this  way  to  injure 
the  wind  and  speed  of  their  opposing  horses.  Another 
exceedingly  curious  discovery  was  that  of  a  terra-cotta 
figurine  showing  an  organist  and  organ  of  the  second 
century — the  organ  having  many  pipes  of  graduated 
length,  stops,  sound-board,  case,  etc.^^^ 

Many  of  the  later  excavations  at  Carthage  have 
been  paid  for  by  Cardinal  Lavigerie  out  of  his  own 
private  purse. 

"'The  authority  for  this  latter  statement  is  Douglas  Sloden,  Carthage 
and  Tunis,  1906,  Vol.  I,  pp.  94-7;  for  the  excavations  in  general,  Mabel 
Moore,  Carthage  of  the  Phoenicians  i)i  the  Light  of  Modern  Excavation, 
1905;  compare  Graham  Petrie,  Tunis,  Kaironam  and  Carthage,  1908;  Rene 
Cagnat,  Carthage,  Timgad,  Tebessa,  1912. 


Ill 


NEW    DOCUMENTARY    AND    OTHER    EVI- 
DENCE THROWING  LIGHT  UPON  THE 
EARLY   CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES 

I.  The  Environment  of  the  Holy  Land  in  the 
First  Century 

The  Holy  Land  is  not,  as  Renan  thought,  the  Fifth 
Gospel;  but  it  is  the  best  existing  commentary  on  the 
four  gospels.  It  has  long  been  known  that  the  gospel 
narratives  and  the  sermons  of  Jesus  lose  many  of  their 
most  beautiful  meanings  to  one  unfamiliar  with  the 
natural  scenery  and  native  customs  of  Palestine.  The 
language  of  Jesus,  his  illustrations  and  figures  of 
speech,  all  show  the  influence  of  his  surroundings. 
Much  deeper  than  this  is  the  undoubted  fact  of  the 
psychological  influence  of  these  surroundings  upon  the 
disciples  and  the  Master.  The  ancestry  and  home  of 
the  early  teachers  of  Christianity  affected  them  in- 
tellectually and  spiritually.  As  Dr.  Dale  has  said,  we 
can  not  isolate  the  life  of  Jesus  from  the  preceding  his- 
tory of  the  Jewish  race.  Many  people  seem  to  suppose 
that  they  may  approach  the  subject  as  if  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  had  appeared  "in  Spain  or  China  instead  of 
Judea  and  Galilee."  ^ 

Jesus'  mission  would  have  had  another  character  if 

^  Dale,  The  Living  Christ,  p.  89. 

577 


578    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

he  had  "grown  up  under  the  oaks  of  Germany  instead 
of  the  pahiis  of  Nazareth."  So  also,  it  is  indis- 
putable that  for  Jesus  himself  the  "facts  of  his  con- 
sciousness were  given  him  under  those  forms  of  view- 
ing things  in  which  Jewish  thought  in  general  was 
cast!"' 

To  be  a  "son  of  Abraham"  meant  something  even 
to  the  Son  of  Man,  and  Jewish  history  and  literature 
were  the  best  part  of  his  early  education.  From  the  hill 
above  Nazareth  he  could  see  scores  of  historical  sites, 
and  in  all  his  boyish  wanderings  he  and  his  companions 
were  met  with  reminiscences  of  David  and  Elijah  and 
Judas  Maccabeus  and  other  heroes  of  Israel.  The 
modern  explorations  fixing  ancient  sites  and  the  recent 
valuable  studies  of  the  physical  features  of  Palestine 
have  brought  much  more  vividly  to  us  the  historic  and 
geographical  influences  which  must  have  affected  every 
thoughtful  Galilean  youth. 

But  these  investigations  have  done  much  more  than 
this.  It  is  now  seen  as  never  before  that  Christianity 
"at  its  depths  rests  upon  oriental  foundations."  Jesus 
was  an  oriental.  His  religious  presuppositions,  his 
style  of  argument,  his  picturesque  language,  his  thought 
of  nature  and  of  politics,  his  view  of  religious  truth 
and  his  methods  of  presenting  truth  were  all  oriental. 
The  modern  excavations  in  Palestine  have  given  to  us 
a  better  appreciation  of  the  oriental  poverty  and  com- 
fortlessness  of  the  little  adobe  houses  in  which  Jesus 
and  his  contemporaries  of  the  poorer  and  middle  classes 
lived. 

But  perhaps  the  new  discoveries  have  been  most 

*  See  History  of  New  Test.  Times,  II :  225,  quoted  by  Kelman  in  his 
valuable  article  "Palestine"  in  Dictionary  of  Christ  and  the  Gospels. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      579 

important  in  bringing  clearly  to  light  the  fact  that  the 
district  in  which  Jesus  lived  was  one  which  came  into 
close  touch  with  the  currents  of  a  world  civilization. 

Tho  it  has  been  well  said  that  the  ordinary  travels 
of  Jesus  were  limited  to  a  district  scarcely  larger  than 
Chicago  and  its  suburban  towns,  yet  one  of  the  great 
highways  of  commerce  leading  from  Egypt  to  Damas- 
cus passed  up  through  Galilee  by  the  way  of  Nazareth, 
and  from  the  home  of  Jesus  it  was  only  forty  miles  to 
Tyre,  the  celebrated  Phoenician  capitol,  and  less  than 
fifty  to  the  great  Roman  city  of  Csesarea  Philippi, 
where  the  ground  is  yet  covered  with  the  remnants  of 
ancient  palaces  which  in  the  days  of  Christ  were  more 
imposing  than  any  mansions  now  owned  by  New  York 
millionaires. 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  influence  of 
traffic  was  greater  then  than  now,  since  travel  was  slow 
and  every  good-sized  town  and  village  became  a  stop- 
ping place  for  caravans  which  contained  not  only  mer- 
chants and  soldiers  but  often  foreign  scholars  and 
princes.  We  have  said  that  the  travel  was  slow,  but 
the  Roman  roads  in  the  first  century  were  really  better 
than  our  best  State  highways;  and  while  the  ordinary 
day's  travel  of  a  caravan  was  not  more  than  twenty  or 
twenty-five  miles,  special  imperial  messengers  were  ac- 
customed to  make  from  100  to  150  miles  in  cases  of 
emergency. 

But  it  was  the  Mediterranean  which  was  the 
swiftest  and  best  highway  of  the  entire  civilized  world, 
and  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  ocean  borders 
Palestine  and  can  be  seen  from  the  hills  of  Nazareth. 
Those  ships  were  primitive  but  were  often  of  good 
size.     St.   Paul  speaks  of  his  ship  carrying  276  pas- 


58o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

sengers  (Acts  27:37),  and  Josephus  tells  of  being 
wrecked  on  a  voyage  from  Palestine  to  Italy  while  on 
a  ship  carrying  some  600  persons;  and  there  were  war 
ships  at  that  time  which  could  carry  as  many  as  a 
thousand  soldiers,  and  other  ships  capable  of  carrying 
from  250  to  1,500  tons  of  freight.  Pictures  of  the 
ships  of  this  era,  perhaps  painted  within  twenty  years 
of  the  time  of  Paul's  journey,  are  common  at  Her- 
culaneum  and  Pompeii,  and  a  vivid  description  of  one 
of  them  comes  to  us  from  a  Syrian  who  was  born  about 
fifty  years  after  Paul's  shipwreck.  Describing  one  of 
the  Alexandrian  grain  ships,  such  as  the  one  on  which 
St.  Paul  sailed,  he  speaks  of  the  long,  rising  sweep  of 
the  prow  and  the  figures  of  her  name — Isis — on  either 
side  {cf.  Acts  28:  11),  and  continues: 

"As  to  other  ornamental  details,  the  paintings  and  the  scarlet 
top  sail,  I  was  more  struck  by  the  anchors  and  the  capstans  and 
windlasses  and  the  stern  cabins.  The  crew  was  like  a  small  army. 
And  they  were  saying  she  carried  as  much  corn  as  would  feed 
every  soul  in  Attica  for  a  year.  And  all  depends  for  safety  on 
one  little  atom  of  a  man  who  controls  that  great  rudder  with  a 
mere  broomstick  of  a  tiller !"  ^ 

It  is  suggestive  that  the  route  of  this  grain  ship  was 
exactly  the  same  as  the  first  stage  of  Paul's  voyage  and 
that  it  also  encountered  adverse  winds.  The  nautical 
terms  used  by  St.  Luke  in  his  description  correspond 
very  exactly  with  ancient  lists,  excepting  in  one  place 
where  in  speaking  of  the  ship  being  broken  by  the 
waves  he  says  that  they  needed  to  bandage  it  (Acts 
27:  17),  using  here  a  medical  term  which  must  have 
made  any  sailor  smile  who  heard  it  or  read  it.    A  long 

'  Cf.  James  3 :  4,  and  see  Biblical  World,  XXXIV :  339 ;  and  for  genertil 
information  see  Cecil  Farr,  Ancient  Ships. 


THE   EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      581 

list  of  medical  terms  used  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
by  ''the  beloved  physician"  (Col.  4:  14)  has  been 
known  to  scholars  for  many  years,  and  these  have  been 
increased  through  a  recent  critical  study  of  the  text  by 
Professor  Harnack;  moreover,  a  celebrated  classical 
scholar  not  long  ago  pointed  out  that  the  formal  intro- 
duction to  the  Third  Gospel  (Luke  1:1-4)  is  so  nearly 
like  that  with  which  Dioscorides  began  his  great  work 
on  materia  medica  that  it  is  quite  probable  that  Luke 
had  this  work  in  his  library  and  imitated  it/ 

As  we  study  these  strange  conditions  and  literary 
coincidences  that  illuminate  Scripture,  we  are  reminded 
of  the  beautiful  bas-relief  of  a  female  head  found  some 
years  ago  in  excavations  at  Athens  which  was  pro- 
nounced by  M.  Kavadias,  the  archeologist  in  charge,  to 
be  a  fragment  of  the  frieze  of  Phidias  on  the  Parthenon 
near  by.  Other  archeologists  exprest  doubt.  After  a 
good  deal  of  discussion  it  was  recollected  that  among 
the  Elgin  marbles  in  the  British  Museum  belonging  to 
the  Parthenon  frieze  there  was  a  figure  of  Iris,  the 
goddess  of  the  rainbow,  lacking  the  head.  A  cast  was 
taken  of  the  newly  discovered  head  and  sent  to  Eng- 
land. This  was  placed  on  the  part  of  the  frieze  from 
which  the  head  had  been  broken  away,  and  fitted  it  ex- 
actly. No  argument  was  needed.  The  demonstration 
was  perfect  that  it  was  the  head  of  Iris. 

The  priceless  jewel,  the  New  Testament,  has  been 
shown  by  history  and  archeology  to  fit  its  setting  as  per- 
fectly as  the  head  of  Iris  its  place  on  the  frieze.^ 

*W.  K.  Hobart,   Medical  Language   of  St.  Luke,   1882;  A.  Harnack, 
Luke,  the  Physician;  Blass,  Philology  of  the  Gospels,  p.  34. 

*  Cf.  Transactions  of  the  Victoria  Inst.,  XLV :  29. 


582     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

2.  Some  Literary  Habits  of  the  First   Century 
Illustrated  in  the  Papyri 

Twenty-five  years  ago  no  scholar  had  ever  recog- 
nized a  ''profane"  document  written  in  the  language 
of  the  New  Testament.  Thousands  of  such  documents 
now  exist,  proving  that  the  New  Testament  was 
essentially  written  in  the  language  used  by  the  common 
people  of  the  first  century.  The  Attic  Greek  in  which 
the  classical  literature  was  written  was  "an  artistic 
language  which  nobody  spoke."  ^  It  was  as  different 
from  the  common  speech  as  the  writings  of  Shake- 
speare from  the  common  speech  of  his  day.  The  New 
Testament  language,  as  we  have  previously  pointed 
out,  was  the  vernacular  of  the  world  during  the  apos- 
tolic era.  It  was  not  the  literary  Greek  but  the  lan- 
guage of  social  and  business  intercourse  which  the 
colonists,  merchants,  and  soldiers,  who  mingled  to- 
gether all  over  the  world,  wrote  and  spoke.  Alexan- 
der's conquest  had  made  the  world  small  and  changed 
the  babble  of  tongues  into  a  world  language  which  was 
to  be  heard  in  the  first  century  of  our  era  not  only  in 
Greece  but  also  in  Egypt,  Italy,  Palestine,  and  Asia 
Minor.  It  was  in  this  language  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  written.  It  was  not  Wycliffe  who  first  gave 
the  New  Testament  to  the  world  in  the  language  of  the 
market-place;  it  was  Mark  and  Matthew  and  Paul  who 
did  this — altho  Paul  in  some  of  his  writings,  as  also  Luke 
and  the  author  of  the  Hebrews,  used  a  literary  style 
higher  than  that  found  in  the  papyri.  We  may  now 
know   precisely  how   the   New   Testament   documents 

•  Jannaris,  Hist.  Greek  Grammar,  p.  3. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      583 

were  written,  for  we  possess  many  specimens  of 
papyrus  writings  which  originated  at  exactly  the  same 
time  and  were  written  exactly  in  the  same  way. 

The  poorer  classes  commonly  used  ostraka  (pot- 
sherds), or  wrote  their  letters  on  the  back  of  some  old 
papyrus  which  they  had  found  or  from  which  they 
could  wash  out  the  ancient  writings  {cf.  Col.  2:  14). 
As  papyrus  breaks  easily,  the  beginning  and  ending  of 
every  papyrus  book  is  usually  much  frayed  and  worn; 
this  would  naturally  account  for  the  mutilated  verses 
at  the  end  of  Mark's  gospel  and  at  the  opening  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  Mark's  gospel,  in  the  best 
copies,  closes  with  a  preposition  (16:9)  which  would 
have  been  impossible,  of  course,  in  the  original.  Dr. 
Milligan,  an  expert  on  papyri,  says  of  this:  "We  may 
not  unreasonably  conjecture  that  the  last  leaf  of  the 
original  manuscript  was  lost  at  a  very  early  date,  and 
that  the  additional  twelve  verses  with  which  we  are 
familiar  in  our  ordinary  version  and  the  shorter  end- 
ing which  other  authorities  offer  as  an  alternative,  as 
well  as  the  expanded  account  of  the  newly  discovered 
Freer  manuscript,  were  all  added  later  at  different 
times  and  by  different  hands  to  round  off  the  mutilated 
Marcan  account  of  the  resurrection."  ^ 

When  finished,  the  papyrus  roll  was  usually  fas- 
tened with  a  thread  and  often  sealed  (Rev.  5:1). 
Letters  were  transmitted  to  their  destination  by  private 
messengers,  unless  through  some  influence  they  could 
be  placed  in  the  royal  mails  or  in  that  of  some  large 
business  firm. 

"*  Swete,  Gospel  of  Mark,  1905,  CIX,  thinks  the  present  ending  dates  to 
the  second  century  or  earlier.  F.  C.  Conybeare  in  1891,  in  an  ancient 
Armenian  MS.  of  Mark  (a.d.  986),  found  the  authority  given  for  these 
additional  verses  to  be  "the  presbyter  Ariston." 


584    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Once  more  we  must  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
dictation  of  letters  was  almost  as  common  in  the  first 
century  as  among  business  men  of  to-day.  Not  only 
ignorant  persons  did  this,  but  likewise  men  who  could 
write  were  in  the  habit  of  having  scribes  do  this  drudg- 
ery for  them.  If  a  man  was  not  rich  he  might  have  a 
young  friend  or  pupil  who  would  be  ready  to  wield  the 
pen  for  him.  This  is  in  accordance  with  the  dignity  of 
age  in  the  East.  "The  old  man  strokes  his  beard  and 
dictates  his  words  to  the  scribe.  That  is  what  Paul 
did,  altho  I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  he  had  the 
beard  which  Christian  art  gives  him."  ^  It  is  entirely 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  common  oriental  method 
of  letter  writing  was  followed  by  the  New  Testament 
writers  as  by  other  literary  men  and  letter  writers  of 
the  first  century. 

Shorthand  was  used  not  uncommonly  in  legal  cases 
and  by  private  literary  men,  at  least  three  different 
systems  being  in  vogue,  one  contract  from  a.d.  155 
speaking  of  a  two  years'  term  during  which  the  student 
is  to  be  taught  to  read  and  write  these  signs  fault- 
lessly. It  is  plain  that  the  same  author  might  have  a 
style  and  vocabulary,  when  his  letter  was  dictated,  very 
different  from  that  which  was  used  when  he  allowed 
more  freedom  to  his  amanuensis  in  the  words  and 
phrases  employed.  It  will  also  be  seen  that  two  differ- 
ent writers  might  favor  each  other  in  style  if  they 
employed  the  same  amanuensis.  "The  form  which 
Peter  took  and  the  many  Pauline  echoes  it  contains 
may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  Peter  employed  as  his  scribe 
Sylvanus  [Silas],  who  had  already  acted  in  a  similar 
capacity  for  Paul   .    .    .   and  it  is  at  least  possible  that 

*  Gregory,  Canon  and  Text  of  New  Testament,  p.  300. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      585 

in  the  dictation  and  revision  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  we 
may  have  a  partial  key  to  some  of  the  vexed  questions 
that  have  arisen  regarding  its  authorship."  ^ 

The  fact  that  the  letter  is  dictated  is  not  ordinarily 
stated  in  the  papyri,  but  is  proved  by  the  difference  of 
handwriting  seen  in  the  signature.  It  was  the  authen- 
ticating signature  of  St.  Paul  which  was  necessary  to 
prove  even  to  his  friends  that  the  writing  they  re- 
ceived had  been  made  from  his  own  lips  (2  Thess. 
3:  17,  18;  I  Cor.  16:  21 ;  Col.  4:  18).  As  the  letter  to 
the  Galatians  was  especially  severe,  this  may  have  been 
written  by  the  apostle's  own  hand  (Gal.  6:  11).  It  is 
possible  that  the  loving  paragraphs  with  which  the 
letter  closes,  after  the  reprimand,  were  written  by  the 
apostle's  own  hand  "in  large  characters"  in  order  to 
pay  a  delicate  compliment  to  the  church  which  he  had 
criticized. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  rough  breathing 
was  not  originated  until  the  eleventh  century  of  our 
era,  while  the  interrogation  mark  and  the  accent  arose 
respectively  in  the  ninth  and  seventh  centuries,  and 
no  parentheses  and  very  few  punctuation  marks  ever 
appear  among  the  papyri  of  the  first  century.  These 
ordinary  facts  of  penmanship,  illustrated  in  all  ancient 
documents  of  the  first  century,  account  doubtless  for 
many  of  the  different  readings  of  the  New  Testament 
texts  which  have  previously  been  assigned  to  careless- 
ness or  wilfulness  on  the  part  of  copyists.  It  is  also 
now  known  that  the  ordinary  penman  of  that  era  inter- 
changed the  long  and  short  vowels  almost  at  will,  and 
that  certain  consonants  were  often  used  interchange- 
ably. 

'  Milligan,  New  Testament  Documents,  p.  30. 


586     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

In  the  sixty  or  more  very  ancient  New  Testament 
manuscripts  recently  brought  to  light  there  are  almost 
innumerable  mistakes  of  spelling.  These  mistakes  may 
have  been  originally  made  by  the  Biblical  writers  or 
may  have  been  later  phonetic  blunders;  for  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  classical  writers,  in  the  first  and  second 
centuries  of  our  era,  to  have  fifty  or  a  hundred  copyists 
who  wrote  their  book  as  some  one  read  it  aloud.  So 
copies  of  the  New  Testament  may  have  been  multiplied. 
It  is  far  more  likely,  however,  that  the  copyist  usually 
did  the  work  privately  with  an  ancient  manuscript 
before  him;  but  some  of  those  scribes  knew  their 
New  Testament  so  well  that  they  would  only  glance 
at  the  original  and  then  write  an  entire  sentence 
or  more  without  looking  at  their  model — giving  the 
sense  correctly  but  committing  the  same  kind  of  errors 
in  eyesight  and  memory  that  a  college  class  would 
make  if  assigned  a  similar  task. 

A  comparison  of  the  New  Testament  letters  with 
the  private  correspondence  of  contemporaries  shows 
that  St.  Paul  used  the  customary  polite  form  which  was 
universal  among  the  middle  classes  at  that  period. 
There  is  an  opening  address  or  greeting,  followed  by  a 
thanksgiving  and  prayer  for  the  one  to  whom  he  writes, 
followed  by  the  special  message  which  has  caused  the 
letter  to  be  written,  the  whole  being  closed  by  saluta- 
tions and  perhaps  a  word  of  prayer.  This  polite 
epistolary  phraseology  was  stereotyped. 

Almost  universally  the  letter  which  is  written  in 
good  form  begins  with  greetings  and  closes  with  good 
wishes.  A  recent  writer  has  analyzed  several  of  Paul's 
letters  showing  how  carefully  he  observed  the  polite 
form,  except  when  pulled  from  it  by  special  stress  of 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      587 

feeling/^  and  gives  a  number  of  private  letters  written 
not  far  from  the  same  era,  showing  a  marked  similarity 
in  style  and  even  occasionally  in  phrase.  One  of  these 
from  the  first  century  reads: 

"Hermocrates  to  Chaeras  his  son,  greeting.  First  of  all  I  pray 
that  you  may  be  in  health  .  .  .  and  I  beg  you  ...  to  write 
regarding  your  health,  and  whatever  you  wish.  Already  indeed 
I  have  written  regarding  the  .  .  .  and  you  neither  answered 
nor  came,  and  now  if  you  do  not  come,  I  run  the  risk  of  losing 
the  lot  (of  land)  which  I  possess.  .  .  .  Your  sister  Helene 
greets  you  and  your  mother  reproaches  you  because  you  have 
never  answered  her  ...   I  pray  that  you  may  be  well." 

Another  beautiful  letter  from  the  second  century, 
given  by  Dr.  Milligan,  well  illustrates  this  point: 

"Ammonous  to  her  sweetest  father,  greeting.  When  I  received 
your  letter,  and  recognized  that  by  the  will  of  the  gods  you  were 
preserved,  I  rejoiced  greatly.  And  as  at  the  same  time  an  oppor- 
tunity has  presented  itself,  I  am  writing  you  this  letter,  being, 
very  anxious  to  pay  my  respects  to  you.  Attend  as  quickly  as 
possible  to  the  matters  that  are  pressing.  Whatever  the  little 
one  asks  shall  be  done.  If  the  bearer  of  this  letter  hands  over 
a  small  basket  to  you,  it  is  I  who  send  it.  All  your  friends  greet 
you  by  name.  Celer  greets  you  and  all  who  are  with  him.  I  pray 
for  your  health." 

Another  just  published  in  1914  is  addrest  "To  the 
sweetest  Apa  Domne,"  and  closes: 

"Above  all  I  repeatedly  salute  name  by  name  both  Apa  Domne 
and  all  those  in  the  household  from  small  to  great." 

Even  as  late  as  the  eighth  century  we  find  the  com- 
mon people  in  Egypt  beginning  their  letters: 

"First  I  greet  thee  and  all  those  that  are  with  thee  by  their 
names." 

"Wood,  Life  and  Ministry  of  St.  Paul,  p.  18. 


588    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

At  this  late  date,  however,  the  expressions  had 
ordinarily  become  more  effusive  and  a  very  common 
opening  sentence  is:  "I  salute  the  footstool  of  thy 
feet." 

The  postscripts  of  St.  Paul  in  several  epistles,  v^here 
he  adds  some  specially  loving  word  or  mentions  by 
name  a  list  of  choice  friends,  is  paralleled  in  many 
letters  which  are  practically  contemporaneous.  Dr. 
Milligan  has  published  one  private  letter  (second  cen- 
tury) containing  thirty-one  lines  of  Greek  text,  thirteen 
of  which  are  taken  up  with  the  closing  greetings,  and 
another  of  fifty  lines  in  which  about  half  of  the  letter 
is  given  up  to  salutations  "to  members  of  the  house- 
hold" mentioned  by  name.^^ 

Every  one  who  has  personally  examined  the  papyri 
arises  from  the  study  with  a  new  appreciation  of  the 
truth  that  the  literary  style  and  method  employed  in 
the  New  Testament  are  cut  after  the  pattern  most  com- 
mon and  popular  among  the  middle  classes  of  the  first 
century. 

Perhaps  as  we  end  this  part  of  our  study  we  may 
again  remind  the  reader  that  in  almost  every  one  of 
these  ancient  documents  Biblical  words  catch  the  eye 
of  the  New  Testament  student.  Here  lying  on  the 
table  before  the  writer  are  many  unpublished  papyri 
which  he  obtained  a  few  months  ago  in  the  Fayum. 
The  date  upon  one  of  them  is  December  a.d.  182,  and 
the  missive  is  from  a  goldsmith  by  the  name  of  Sabirius 
who  writes  to  Serapias,  daughter  of  Philip,  stating 
that  he  has  paid  her  15  minae  of  "standard  gold" — the 
Greek  word  being  precisely  the  same  as  that  used  in 
Jas.  1 :  3  and  i  Peter  i :  7. 

"  Selections  from  the  Greek  Papyri,  1910. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      589 

Here  is  another,  of  a  little  later  date,  beginning: 
"Above  all  I  pray  for  the  merciful  N .'' 

The  term  used  here  is  precisely  the  same  as  in  the 
beatitude,  "Blessed  are  the  merciful."  In  the  margin 
is  written  at  right  angles  to  the  text:  "Mother  mine, 
do  write  to  me  immediately."  That  word  (k\avTf\c,)  is 
the  very  one  that  Luke  uses  four  times  (Acts  10:  33; 
11:  11;  21:32;  23:30). 

Here  is  another  papyrus  very  hard  to  decipher,  tho 
the  name  of  the  writer  seems  to  be  Dioskoros,  who 
writes  a  little  note  to  Hermes,  and  in  the  midst  of  it 
speaks  of  an  acquaintance  saying :  "We  can  not  endure 
the  man !"  The  pen  of  this  old  letter  writer  made  here 
exactly  the  same  strokes  which  Paul's  amanuensis  made 
when  at  the  apostle's  dictation  he  wrote  out  the  sen- 
tence (i  Cor.  10:13):  "God  .  .  .  will  with  the 
temptation  make  also  the  way  of  escape,  that  ye  may 
be  able  to  endure  it."  ^^ 

Only  one  of  these  letters  quoted  above  is  Christian, 
and  even  that  is  doubtful;  but  everybody  at  that  era 
was  using  Biblical  words.  Among  the  1,624  ostraka 
published  a  few  years  ago  by  Wilcken  ^*  not  even  one 
was  Christian,  yet  these  little  texts  are  full  of  New 
Testament  words  and  idioms.  In  just  one  letter  sent 
by  a  prodigal  son  to  his  mother  there  are  at  least 
thirteen  Biblical  terms  used  (quoted  p.  327). 

We  close  this  section  by  pointing  out  that  private 
letters  such  as  those  St.  Paul  wrote  would  in  that  era 
not  only  be  read  by  the  persons  receiving  them,  but 

"  The  writer  wishes  to  acknowledge  his  obligation  to  Prof.  Edgar  J. 
Goodspeed,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  who  has  given  valuable  help  in 
making  out  a  number  of  these  scrawls,  which  seemed  at  first  absolutely 
indecipherable. 

"  Griechische  Ostraka  aus  Aegypten  und  Nubien,  2 :  1899. 


590    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

would  also  naturally  be  copied  and  sent  to  other  bands 
of  believers,  if  they  were  thought  to  contain  anything  of 
special  interest,  as  is  shown  by  a  letter  published  in 
1914: 

"To  my  lady  mother,  Germania,  greetings:  Since  I  came 
away  from  you  yesterday  without  telling  you  about  the  pot,  take 
and  copy  my  letter  and  give  it  to  my  mother  Apaxris  for  my  sister 
Hagia.    Well,  do  not  forget.    I  pray  that  you  are  well."  ^^ 

3.  A  New  View  of  the  First  Century  from  a  Re- 
examination OF  THE  Classical  Texts  in 
THE  Light  of  New  Discoveries 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  new  views  of  the 
development  of  Roman  history,  as  given  by  Ferrero, 
and  the  brilliant  descriptions  of  Roman  society  in  the 
time  of  Nero  by  several  other  scholars,  have  been 
largely  influenced  by  the  mass  of  newly  found  papyri 
and  inscriptions,  which  have  thrown  a  vivid  light  not 
chiefly  upon  the  intrigues  of  the  royal  palace  but  upon 
the  currents  of  popular  life.  We  can  no  longer  talk 
about  the  wars  of  the  Emperors  without  examining  the 
causes  of  these  wars  found  in  the  life  of  the  people  and 
their  results  in  affecting  financial  and  social  conditions. 

It  is  now  plain  that  a  social  revolution  was  in 
progress  in  the  first  century.  The  nobles  had  lost  their 
wealth  and  prestige,  and  the  whole  Roman  Empire  was 
being  shaken  by  the  grumbling  of  the  "common  people," 
who  for  ages  had  felt  their  wrongs  but  were  at  last  be- 
ginning to  speak  and  make  themselves  heard.  Within 
two  generations  of  the  death  of  Christ  vast  mobs, 
amounting   to   hundreds   of   thousands   of   the   unem- 

"  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  X:  1349. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      591 

ployed,  burst  into  Rome  and  surrounded  the  imperial 
palace  howling  for  bread.  The  freedmen,  whose  an- 
cestors had  been  slaves  but  who  were  now  the  richest 
of  the  populace,  had  also  become  a  tremendous  political 
factor.  They  had  not  only  money  but  also  trade 
experience  and  a  practical  education  superior  to  the 
nobles. 

The  fact  that  princes  and  senators  were  forbidden 
by  law  to  increase  their  fortunes  by  commerce,  and  the 
further  fact  that  honest  toil  even  in  such  professions 
as  pedagogy  and  medicine  was  despised  by  the  "best 
families,"  had  produced  this  sad  condition.  The  Roman 
nobles  had  scorned  the  drudgery  of  education,  so  that 
it  was  the  slave  who  had  been  taught  in  the  schools  and 
had  become  the  expert  accountant  as  well  as  the  poet  and 
literary  man  of  this  era.  Neither  Juvenal  nor  Quin- 
tilian  nor  Martial  came  of  "good  blood."  In  order  to 
make  the  slaves  who  carried  on  their  financial  plans 
more  energetic  in  seeking  success  their  owners  had  of- 
fered them  emancipation,  so  that  the  active  commercial 
work  of  the  first  century  was  being  carried  on  by  this  re- 
cently servile  class,  and  these  despised  people  had  sudden- 
ly become  the  heavy  capitalists  of  the  realm.  More  than 
this,  because  of  their  training  in  practical  afifairs,  they 
had  fitted  themselves  for  high  positions  in  the  imperial 
service;  and  a  number  of  these,  like  Callistus,  Nar- 
cissus, and  Pallas,  had  risen  to  the  rank  of  great  minis- 
ters and  were  practically  masters  of  the  world.^^  Many 
of  these  men,  who  had  begun  life  without  a  dollar  but 
through  industry  or  intrigue  had  obtained  immense 
fortunes,    were    building    themselves    palaces,    almost 

"For  a  most  interesting  resume,  see  Dill,  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to 
Marcus  AureUiis,  1905,  p.  106. 


592    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

rivaling  the  Golden  House  of  Nero,  and  trying  in  every 
vulgar  way  to  imitate  the  more  refined  but  equally  evil 
excesses  of  their  former  masters.  They  gave  gorgeous 
banquets  at  which  there  were  unmentionable  orgies, 
and  displayed  their  vulgarity  and  ignorance  and  lack 
of  refinement  in  a  way  which  made  them  hated  and 
despised  by  the  cultured  poor  as  well  as  by  the  titled 
nobility.  No  one  can  understand  the  work  of  the 
primitive  Christian  Church  among  the  freedmen  with- 
out bearing  these  facts  in  mind. 

But  the  freedmen  with  whom  the  early  Christians 
chiefly  worked  were  not  of  this  wealthy  class.  The 
proportion  of  poor  to  rich  in  the  Roman  Empire  was 
much  greater  than  in  the  world  to-day,  and  the  con- 
trast between  rich  and  poor  was  more  startling. 
Poverty  was  practically  universal,  and  for  almost  the 
first  time  in  history  the  poor  man  had  become  dan- 
gerous. The  Emperor  could  no  longer  spend  $15,000 
for  a  vase  or  $20,000  for  a  table  or  $200,000  for  a 
Babylonian  carpet;  or  waste,  as  Nero  did,  $175,000 
upon  Egyptian  roses  for  a  single  feast  and  squander 
$90,000,000  in  a  few  months,  without  the  "people  feel- 
ing the  sting"  of  their  own  poverty.^^ 

Corporations  and  monopolies  had  so  taken  posses- 
sion of  all  the  foodstufifs  that  about  half  a  century  be- 
fore the  birth  of  Christ  nearly  300,000  persons  were 
compelled  in  one  year  to  ask  gifts  of  corn  from  the 
State  in  order  to  survive.  Every  successful  politician 
coaxed  the  citizens  to  support  his  administration  by 
giving  such  gifts  and  attempting  to  please  the  populace 

"W.  S.  Davis,  Wealth  in  Imperial  Rome  (1910),  tells  how  Claudius 
dissolved  a  pearl  worth  $40,000  in  vinegar  and  drank  it;  Caesar,  59  B.C., 
bought  two  pearls  for  $700,000;  Lucius  Verus  gave  a  feast  costing  $700,000; 
Publius  Octavius  paid  $65  a  pound  for  a  rare  fish  (pp.  165-181). 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      593 

with  free  shows.  The  case  had  become  so  desperate 
by  A.D.  300  that  Diocletian,  in  an  effort  to  bring  down 
prices  to  a  normal  level,  not  only  attempted  to  suppress 
combinations  in  restraint  of  trade  but  actually  fixt  by 
law  the  maximum  price  at  which  the  necessities  of  life 
could  be  sold,  any  violation  of  the  law  to  be  visited  with 
the  penalty  of  death.  Specific  prices  were  fixt  upon 
over  700  articles.  The  highest  price  allowed  for  wheat 
per  bushel  was  $3.36;  beans  or  salt,  75c.;  oil  per  quart, 
30.25c. ;  honey,  30.3c. ;  pork  per  pound,  7.3c. ;  beef, 
4.9c. ;  ham,  12c. ;  lamb,  7.3c. ;  butter,  9.8c. ;  sea  fish  per 
pound,  14.6c.;  second  quality,  9.7c.;  river  fish,  7.3c.; 
salt  fish,  8.3c. ;  oysters  by  the  hundred,  43.5c. ;  sardines, 
9.7c. ;  dry  cheese,  7.3c. ;  fresh  cheese  per  quart,  6c. ; 
sheep's  milk  per  quart,  6c. ;  peasants'  boots  without 
nails,  53c. ;  soldiers'  boots,  43c. ;  women's  boots,  26c., 
etc.  Transportation  was  also  fixt — one  person  one 
mile,  9c. ;  rent  for  wagon  one  mile,  5c. ;  freight  charge 
for  camel  load  of  600  pounds  per  mile,  3.5c.;  freight 
charge  for  wagon  containing  up  to  1,200  pounds  per 
mile,  8.7c.;  hay  and  straw  three  pounds,  9c.  Wages 
were  also  fixt  by  law — the  ''keep"  of  the  workman 
being  included — as  follows:  Manual  laborer,  io.8c. ; 
bricklayer,  21.6c.;  carpenter,  stone  mason,  wagon- 
maker,  blacksmith,  baker,  shipbuilder,  elementary 
teacher,  21.6c.;  marble  worker,  master  shipbuilder, 
26c.;  first-class  tailor,  26.1c.;  wall  painter,  32.4c.; 
figure  painter,  64.8c. ;  maker  of  statues,  32.4c. ;  barber, 
9c.;  veterinary  surgeon,  2.6c.;  document  writer  for 
record  of  100  lines,  4.3c. ;  writer,  100  lines  best  writ- 
ing, 10.9c. ;  elementary  teacher  or  writing  teacher  per 
month  per  pupil,  21.6c.;  teacher  of  arithmetic  per 
month   or   of   stenography,    32.6c.;   teacher   of   Greek, 


594     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Latin  or  geometry,  87c.;  teacher  of  rhetoric,  $1.09; 
advocate  or  counsel  for  presenting  a  case,  $1.09;  for 
finishing  a  case,  $4.35.^^ 

Comparing  the  ordinary  income  of  normal  Ameri- 
can families  with  their  normal  outlay  for  food,  Dr. 
Abbott  finds  from  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Labor  on  the  "Cost  of  Living  and  Retail  Prices  of 
Food"  (1903),  and  by  Bulletin  No.  yj  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  (1908)  that  American  laborers,  however  bad 
their  present  condition  may  be,  are  far  better  off  than 
the  Roman  laborer  at  the  above  era,  since  the  ancient 
laborer  received  only  a  ninth  or  a  fifteenth  as  much  as 
the  modern  while  the  average  price  of  food  was  about 
a  third  of  the  average  of  the  same  articles  to-day.^® 
If  the  Roman  laborer  bought  half  a  dozen  geese  for 
a  New  Year's  feast,  it  took  almost  the  entire  month  to 
pay  for  them.  If  he  bought  a  quart  of  honey,  it  cost 
him  a  day  and  a  half  of  hard  work;  while  a  bushel  of 
beans  or  barley  cost  about  half  a  week's  income;  a  pair 
of  boots  two  and  a  half  days'  wage ;  and  if  he  purchased 
a  pound  of  purple  silk,  it  took  nearly  an  entire  year  to 
pay  for  it.  He  would  be  compelled  to  give  over  a 
fourth  of  his  daily  wage  for  a  dozen  of  eggs,  and  his 
wife  quite  as  much  for  a  dozen  sewing-needles;  if  he 
bought  a  pound  of  pork  it  cost  nearly  half  a  day's 
wages,  and  three  and  a  half  pounds  of  beef  took  a 
whole  day's  income;  while  three  pounds  of  ham  took 
two  days'  wages.^** 

Nevertheless   many   distinguished    scholars   believe 

*^  Original  document  given  in  Corpus  inscriptionum  Latinarum,  Vol.  3, 
pp.  1926-1953 ;  lengthy  extract  given  in  translation  by  Abbott,  Common 
People  of  Ancient  Rome,  153-178. 

"  Op.  cit,  p.  176. 

^°  These  prices  are  taken  from  Diocletian's  list  formerly  mentioned ; 
probably  they  did  not  differ  greatly  from  the  average  in  the  days  of  Jesus. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      595 

that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  in  pity  for  the  poor  was  at- 
tempting to  inaugurate  a  new  social  system  where  the 
horror  of  the  old  economic  system  of  "grasping" — 
which  originated  in  the  jungle — should  give  place  to 
the  comfort  of  the  new  Christian  economics  which  had 
beneath  it  the  divine  principle  of  ''giving.""^ 

The  brutality  of  that  ancient  world  has  long  been 
recognized.  The  gladiatorial  shows,  offered  to  the 
people  in  order  to  keep  them  from  dwelling  upon  their 
miseries,  were  prize-fights  in  which  hundreds,  perhaps 
thousands,  of  people  were  killed  annually.  These  were 
not  simply  governmental  exhibitions,  but  were  expected 
of  every  rich  man  at  every  possible  opportunity.  Even 
the  kindly  Pliny  applauded  his  friend  for  giving  a 
gladiatorial  show  in  honor  of  his  deceased  wife,  and 
wrote  sympathetically:  "I  am  sorry  the  leopards  did 
not  come  in  time." 

In  those  ancient  theaters  the  actors  were  killed  fre- 
quently in  awful  agony  and  under  the  most  grotesque 
and  horrible  surroundings,  while  the  Roman  ladies 
laughed  and  applauded.  One  of  Nero's  most  popular 
exhibitions  of  this  kind  was  carried  on  at  Rome  with 
Christians  in  the  center  of  the  stage.^^ 

War  is  a  mild  thing  compared  with  murder  in  the 
midst  of  gaiety.  The  apostolic  age  was  one  of  intense 
cruelty.  Of  the  first  twelve  Caesars  seven  died  violent 
deaths.  Thirty  thousand  slaves  were  crucified  under 
Augustus.  Any  slave  could  be  crucified  at  the  whim  of 
his  master,  tho  these  slaves  were  often  treated  as 
trusted    friends,    like    Rhoda    the    doorkeeper     (Acts 

"  See  especially  A.  N.  Craft's  Exodus  from  Poverty,  1914,  edited  by 
Rev.  W.  H.  Talmage,  Flandreau,  So.  Dakota. 

*'  See  M.  Renan,  English  Conferences,  pp.  62-65,  for  a  most  vivid  de- 
scription. 


596    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

12:  13).  Under  Claudius  (a.d.  41-54)  19,000  men 
were  surrounded  and  compelled  to  butcher  each  other 
and  fight  thousands  of  wild  beasts.  Nero  assassinated 
friends  and  relatives  without  number,  brutally  killing 
both  wife  and  mother.  An  idea  of  the  age  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  the  Roman  Senate  thanked 
him  for  the  murder  of  his  mother.  Yet  while  Suetonius 
called  him  "a  wild  beast,"  and  Paul  called  him  a  lion 
(2  Tim.  4:  17),  Domitian  (a.d.  81-96)  was  so  much 
worse  that  it  is  said  the  populace  brought  flowers  in 
sorrow  to  put  upon  Nero's  grave ! 

Such  was  the  frightful  picture  of  the  first  century 
offered  to  the  world  previous  to  the  new  discoveries. 
The  papyri  could  not  contradict  the  above  facts;  but  as 
we  shall  see  a  little  later,  they  furnish  material  from 
another  stratum  of  the  population,  showing  that  the 
middle  classes  even  in  these  most  frightful  reigns  re- 
tained self-respect  and  honor  and  family  love  and  a 
sense  of  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  opprest.  It  may 
seem  an  exaggeration  when  Dr.  Dill  suggests  a  doubt 
whether  private  benefactions  under  the  Antonines  were 
less  frequent  and  generous  than  in  our  own  day^*  and 
when  Duruy  can  hint  that  the  morality  of  women  was 
"as  high  as  the  morality  of  any  age";"^  yet  we  can  not 
deny  that  Pliny's  gifts — $45,000  for  a  town  library 
with  an  annual  endowment  of  $4,000  to  maintain  it; 
$20,000  for  the  support  of  poor  children,  $20,000  for 
public  baths,  $40,000  to  his  freedmen,  etc.,  etc. — 
formed  a  larger  percentage  of  his  estate  paid  out  in 
charity  than  most  public  men  of  to-day  can  equal.  So 
the  Pompeian  inscriptions  show  many  public  buildings 

^*  Ronwn  Society,  p.  191. 
^History  of  Rome,  Vol.  5,  p.  673. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      597 

as  being  the  gift  of  private  citizens,  and  thousands  of 
tombstones  all  over  the  Roman  empire  testify  that  the 
common  people  still  retained  kindness  of  heart  and  some 
of  the  old  standards  of  morality.  Of  Dionysius,  the 
physician,  it  is  said:  **To  all  the  sick  who  came  to  him 
he  gave  his  services  free  of  charge" ;  of  Sof roniola  the 
loving  husband  records  "purity,  loyalty,  affection,  a 
sense  of  duty,  a  yielding  nature  and  whatever  qualities 
God  has  implanted  in  woman" ;  of  another  the  husband 
Valerius  inscribes  the  tribute,  *'Pure  in  heart,  modest,  of. 
seemly  bearing,  discreet,  noble-minded,  and  held  in  high 
esteem."  -^ 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  tombstone 
testimony  can  not  always  be  received  in  court;  and 
altho  Plutarch's  ideal  of  marriage  might  ''have  satisfied 
St.  Paul"  ^'  and  altho  Seneca  suggests  "the  single 
standard"  as  his  ideal  of  the  marriage  state;  and  altho 
even  Ovid,  notwithstanding  his  indecent  verses,  wrote 
tenderly  to  his  wife;  yet  the  living  testimony  coming 
from  innumerable  papyri,  while  modifying  the  old  con- 
ception which  would  make  the  age  absolutely  heartless, 
does  not  confirm  the  too  optimistic  decisions  of  recent 
scholars.  The  morals  of  the  common  people  were  not 
as  degenerate  as  those  of  the  "smart  set,"  but  they 
were  the  morals  of  a  heathen  people  who  possest  few 
high  ideals  of  purity  even  in  their  gods,  and  had  few 
impulses  to  moral  self-restraint  either  from  their 
heredity,  education,  or  environment. 

The  religion  of  the  first  century  must  be  grasped  in 
outline  before  any  one  can  understand  intelligently  the 

*"  Bucheler,  Carmina  Latina  epigraphica,  Nos.  765,  843,  1414,  quoted  in 
Alibott's  Common  People  of  Ancient  Rome,  pp.  85-87;  cf.  Dill,  Roman 
Society,  76-87. 

="  Dill,  op.  cit.,  p.  77. 


598     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

work  done  by  Christianity  or  appreciate  the  revelations 
of  the  home  life  found  in  the  papyri.  It  has  often  been 
said  that  St.  Paul's  terrific  arraignment  of  the  heathen- 
dom of  his  day  and  Christ's  charges  of  irreligion  upon 
the  Jewish  officials  of  his  generation  were  the  produc- 
tions of  empassioned  rhetoric  rather  than  the  keen  and 
critical  diagnosis  of  diseased  conditions;  and  a  few 
writers  in  recent  times  have  ventured  to  affirm  that  the 
highest  realization  of  religion  as  well  as  of  civilization 
was  achieved  by  that  same  pagan  world  at  a  somewhat 
earlier  period,  while  several  distinguished  Hebrews 
have  thought  themselves  able  to  prove  not  only  that 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  merely  a  re-utterance  of 
rabbinic  platitudes,  but  also  that  the  religious  life  of  the 
Pharisees,  in  its  humility  and  spirituality  and  self-de- 
votion to  God  and  man,  was  equal  to  anything  pictured 
by  the  great  Nazarene  or  lived  out  by  his  disciples.^^ 

The  papyri  are  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  one  claim, 
while  answer  to  the  other  may  be  had  from  the  Talmud 
where  the  minute  stipulations  concerning  the  ceremonial 
washings  and  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  prove  that, 
even  according  to  this  ancient  Jewish  record,  the  words 
of  Jesus  were  an  understatement  rather  than  an  over- 
statement when  he  charged  the  religionists  of  his  day 
with  mistaking  minutiae  of  ritual  for  the  real  essentials 
of  religion.  The  Jews  were  doubtless  better  than  any 
other  people  of  the  ancient  world  both  in  life  and  religious 
doctrines,  yet  the  difference  between  the  cosmic  view 
of  Jesus  and  the  universal  Jewish  view  of  that  era  is 
well  shown  in  the  new  Talmud  Dictionary  where  the 

*^  Yet  against  this  see  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  "Jesus"  and  "St.  Paul" ; 
and  Montefiore,  Synoptic  Gospels  (1909),  11:57,  593,  1098. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      599 

Hebrew  word  "stranger"  grows  to  mean  "idolatry" 
and  "swine." 

No  heathen  reHgion  of  the  first  century  could  com- 
pare with  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  in  purity  of 
doctrine  or  in  the  purity  of  life  enforced.  The  Hebrew 
view  of  God  brought  a  hope  and  the  spirit  of  song  and 
a  sense  of  holiness  into  the  domestic  and  religious  life 
absolutely  foreign  to  heathendom.  Even  the  legalistic 
ritualism  observed  by  the  Pharisees  was  not  as  cold  and 
heartless  a  formalism  as  the  ancient  religion  of  the 
Romans  .^^ 

It  is  true  that  in  the  first  Christian  century  the  old 
Roman  religion  had  improved.  The  doctrine  of  the 
brotherhood  and  equality  of  men  had  been  taught  by 
the  Stoics,  and  in  some  of  the  philosophers,  such  as 
Seneca,  there  may  even  be  heard  a  note  of  pity  for  the 
miserable  and  helpless,  while  in  others  there  is  a  recog- 
nition, in  theory  at  least,  of  the  mental  and  moral 
equality  of  the  sexes;  but  the  doctrine  of  brotherhood 
and  of  mercy  was  preached  as  an  unattainable  ideal."'** 
More  than  this,  the  introduction  of  oriental  religions 
with  their  mystic  impulses  and  rites  and  hope  of  im- 
morality had  caused  better  thoughts  of  God  and  of 
prayer  than  even  philosophy  had  encouraged;  and 
especially  the  Mithra  worship  with  its  purifying  sac- 
rifices and  its  narrative  of  a  divine  life,  instinct  with 
human  sympathy,  was  making  a  very  strong  appeal  in 
the  first  century,  particularly  to  the  poorer  classes, 
stirring  through  its  worship  some  of  the  best  instincts 
of  human  nature. 

But    Stoicism   was    fatalistic   and   therefore   pessi- 

**C/.  Cumont,  Oriental  Religions  in  Paganism  (1911),  Chap,  ii,  viii. 
^Cf.  Carter,  Religious  Life  of  Ancient  Rome  (1911),  p.  85. 


6oo    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

mistic,  and  by  its  neglect  of  emotion  and  sympathy  it 
failed  to  rouse  any  "enthusiasm  of  humanity."  ^^  On 
the  other  hand  the  mystic  oriental  cults — including  even 
the  superior  synthetic  religion  of  Mithra — were  mixed 
up  with  monstrous  fictions  and  extravagances  which 
outraged  the  common  sense  of  enlightened  Romans. 
The  mysteries  of  Mithra  were  frankly  astrological  and 
mythological,  tho  with  certain  saving  esoteric  explana- 
tions.^^ The  sense  of  sin,  the  ascetic  systems  of  pen- 
ance, the  bath  of  purification  in  the  blood  of  the  sac- 
rificed deity,  the  oriental  symbolism  and  mystic  rites — 
pictorial  representations,  many  of  which  were  used  also 
by  Christianity — could  not  save  even  Mithraism  from 
annihilation  before  a  better  religion.  Its  strength  lay 
in  the  fact  that  it  was  a  vast  improvement  in  its  re- 
ligious conceptions  upon  any  faith  that  had  preceded  it. 
With  other  oriental  cults  it  "made  straight  the  way."  ^^ 
It  was  not  an  entirely  unworthy  religion,  else  would 
our  faith  in  the  divine  warrant  of  Christianity  be  dimin- 
ished; but  it  could  not  conquer  because  it  was  separated 
from  Christianity  by  "an  impassable  gulf.  ...  In 
place  of  the  narrative  of  a  divine  life,  instinct  with 
human  sympathy,  it  had  only  to  offer  the  cold  symbol- 
ism of  a  cosmic  legend." 

These  recent  studies  by  classical  students  have 
shown  clearly  that  no  exceptional  conditions  were 
created  to  help  Christianity  conquer.  It  appealed  to 
the  same  human  nature  as  the  other  religions,  and  was 
victor  because  of  the  spiritual  and  historic  truth  be- 

'*  See  especially  Fowler,  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People 
(1911),  chap,  xvi. 

^^  Cumont,  Mysteries  of  Mithra,  pp.  120-148 

^Cumont,  Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism,  chaps,  xi,  xii;  cf. 
Paul  Car  us,  The  Pleroma. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      6oi 

hind  it.  In  the  worship  of  the  Magna  Mater  the  wor- 
shiper, bathed  in  sacrificial  blood,  was  said  to  be  "born 
again  into  eternity";  but  this  "new  birth"  was  very 
different  from  that  which  the  teacher  of  Galilee  en- 
couraged. All  of  these  heathen  religions  offered  salva- 
tion by  reason,  ritual  or  magic;  the  Christ  offered  sal- 
vation by  faith — a  faith  which  produced  moral  and 
spiritual  transformation. 

We  have  delayed  to  the  end  a  consideration  of  the 
most  important  of  all  the  cults  of  the  first  century — 
Emperor  worship.  This  is  the  only  pagan  religion 
which  constantly  meets  us  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
it  was  Emperor  worship,  not  Mithraism,  which  the 
Christian  Fathers  thought  of  as  the  rival  of  Chris- 
tianity. Augustus  established  Emperor  worship  as  the 
state  religion  12  B.C.  and  it  soon  became  "the  only 
universal  form  of  religion  in  the  Roman  empire."  It 
is  dif^cult  to  realize  its  power.  When  first  introduced 
it  produced  an  effect  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation.  It  not  only  revived  the  ancient 
forms,  but  taught  impressively  that  morality  and  pros- 
perity depended  upon  religion.  "By  its  sacrifices  and 
prayer,  thanksgivings  and  rhythmic  hymns  it  brought  a 
revival  to  the  religious  life;  in  its  brotherhood  feasts 
it  encouraged  a  community  of  religious  fellowship;  in 
its  agricultural  bearings  it  taught  that  practical  success 
depends  upon  the  will  of  the  gods;  in  its  nightly  cere- 
monies and  prayers  it  sought  to  give  expression  to  cer- 
tain feelings  and  ideas  not  far  removed  in  kind  from 
those  which  in  our  own  day  we  describe  as  our  re- 
ligious experience."  ^* 

"  W.  Warde  Fowler,  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People  (1911), 
chap.  19. 


6o2     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

And  yet,  as  Dr.  Fowler  well  says,  "all  this  taken 
together,  so  far  from  explaining  Christianity,  does  not 
help  us  much  in  getting  to  understand  even  the  con- 
ditions under  which  it  grew  into  men's  minds  as  a  new 
power  in  the  life  of  the  world.  The  plant,  tho  grown 
in  soil  which  had  borne  other  crops,  was  wholly  new 
in  structure  and  vital  principles.  I  say  this  deliberately 
after  spending  so  many  years  on  the  study  of  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Romans  and  making  myself  acquainted 
in  some  measure  with  the  religions  of  other  peoples. 
The  essential  difference,  as  it  appears  to  me  as  a 
student  of  the  history  of  religion,  is  this,  that  whereas 
the  connection  between  religion  and  morality  has  so  far 
been  a  loose  one — at  Rome  indeed  so  loose  that  many 
have  refused  to  believe  in  its  existence — the  new  re- 
ligion was  itself  morality,  but  morality  consecrated  and 
raised  to  a  higher  power  than  it  had  ever  yet  reached. 
It  becomes  active  instead  of  passive;  mere  good  nature 
is  replaced  by  a  doctrine  of  universal  love;  pietas,  the 
sense  of  duty  and  outward  things,  becomes  an  en- 
thusiasm embracing  all  humanity,  consecrated  by  such 
an  appeal  to  the  conscience  as  there  never  had  been  in 
the  world  before — the  appeal  to  the  life  and  death  of 
the  divine  Master.  .  .  .  The  love  of  Christ  is  the 
entirely  new  power  that  has  come  into  the  world;  not 
merely  as  a  new  type  of  morality  but  as  'a  divine  in- 
fluence transfiguring  human  nature  in  a  universal 
love.'  " '' 

"'  op.  cit.,  pp.  466-467. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      603 

4.  New  Light  on  the  Jewish  Literature  (non- 
Biblical)  WHICH  Chiefly  Influenced  the 
Theological  and  Ethical  Thought  of  Pales- 
tine IN  the  First  Century 

There  have  been  few  surprizes  of  modern  times 
greater  than  that  connected  with  the  re-examination 
and  rediscovery  of  ancient  Hebrew  apocryphal  and 
apocalyptic  works  dating  from  200  B.C.  to  a.d.  200. 
From  the  times  of  the  primitive  Church  until  a  very 
recent  period  it  was  accepted  without  question  that  the 
era  between  Malachi  and  John  the  Baptist  had  been 
voiceless  so  far  as  any  prophetic  message  was  con- 
cerned. It  was  noticed  that  the  New  Testament  showed 
a  vast  divergence  from  the  Old  Testament  in  its  treat- 
ment of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  Messiah,  general 
judgment,  future  life.  Holy  Spirit,  and  other  funda- 
mental doctrines.  But  this  was  counted  merely  a 
divine  inexplicable  mystery.  The  new  examination  of 
well-known  Jewish  books  dating  from  this  ''period  of 
silence,"  and  the  recovery  of  others  long  lost,  have  made 
it  perfectly  plain  that  this  period,  hitherto  practically 
neglected  by  Christian  students,  was  one  of  eager  in- 
tellectual inquisitiveness  and  splendid  theological  and 
ethical  development.  While  it  is  altogether  possible 
that  Professor  Cheyne  and  others  may  have  pushed 
too  many  portions  of  the  canonical  scriptures  into  this 
terra  incognita,  no  scholar  now  doubts  that  this  was  an 
era  of  intense  activity  out  of  which  have  come  some 
most  brilliant  religious  and  ethical  works.  Indeed,  Dr. 
R.  H.  Charles,  who  is  the  highest  living  authority  on 
this  subject,  has  dared  to  say  that  the  two  centuries 
immediately  preceding  the  Christian  era  were  "in  many 


6o4    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

respects  centuries  of  greater  spiritual  progress  than 
any  two  that  had  preceded  them  in  Israel."  ^^ 

Some  of  this  ancient  literature  deals  wholly  with 
Jewish  history,  and  therefore  does  not  appeal  to  us; 
while  other  works,  such  as  Ecclesiasticus  (Sirach)  and 
The  Book  of  Wisdom,  Tobit,  Judith,  etc.,  had  long 
been  known  from  ancient  versions  and  had  been  ac- 
cepted as  ''Scripture"  by  the  Roman  Church.  It  is 
evident  that  we  need  not  dwell  on  the  contents  of  these 
books,  tho  Ecclesiasticus  was  brought  into  new 
prominence  a  few  years  ago  by  the  discovery  of  the 
Hebrew  text,  which  had  been  lost  for  eight  centuries, 
and  it  is  ''positively  invaluable"  as  exhibiting  the  re- 
ligious views  of  a  cultured  Sadducee  and  priest  of 
Jerusalem,  200-175  b.c.^^ 

Tobit  throws  light  on  the  religious  and  ethical  con- 
dition of  the  Jews  in  Egypt  225-200  B.C.,  being  a  work 
of  "singular  esthetic  beauty  and  remarkable  liberal 
sympathies,"  while  Judith  gives  us  a  unique  example 
of  a  Jewish  work  of  historical  fiction,  the  author  being 
a  Palestine  Jew  whose  theology  was  strongly  Pharisaic. 

The  Book  of  Wisdom  (written  cir.  50  B.C.)  is  a 
most  attractive  work.  It  was  probably  composed 
originally  in  Alexandrian  Greek  (vs.  Margoliouth).  Its 
glorification  of  the  Jewish  people  and  its  praise  of 
wisdom  must  have  been  deeply  interesting  to  all  Jews 

^'^  Religions  Development  Between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments 
(1915),  p.  8;  cf.  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism  (second  series),  p.  43. 

'^  Professor  Margoliouth,  in  1899  called  into  question  the  authenticity  of 
the  newly  discovered  Hebrew  fragments,  believing  that  they  represented 
merely  a  re-translation  into  Hebrew  from  a  Persian  version  by  way  of 
the  Greek  and  Syriac;  but  altho  Professor  Nestle  in  part  accepted  this 
hypothesis,  competent  scholars  in  general  have  not  favored  it,  and  Pro- 
fessor Margoliouth's  far-reaching  conclusions  concerning  "higher  critical" 
questions  have  not  been  confirmed. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      605 

of  the  first  century  while  its  discussion  of  the  future 
world  even  yet  appeals  to  us: 

"God  made  not  death ; 
Neither  delighteth  he  when  the  living  perish : 
For  he  created  all  things  that  they  might  have  being: 
And  the  products  of  the  world  are  heaUhsome, 
And  there  is  no  poison  of  destruction  in  them : 
Nor  hath  Hades  royal  dominion  upon  earth ; 
For  righteousness  is  immortal. 

The  souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  hand  of  God, 

And  no  torment  shall  touch  them. 

In  the  eyes  of  fools  they  seem  to  die ; 

And  their  departure  was  accounted  to  be  their  hurt. 

And  their  going  from  us  to-  be  their  ruin : 

But  they  are  in  peace. 

For  though  in  the  sight  of  men  they  be  punished, 

Their  hope  is  full  of  immortality ; 

And  having  borne  a  little  chastening  they  shall  receive 

great  good, 
Because  God  tested  them  and  found  them  worthy  of 

himself." 

Enoch  is  a  work  not  so  well  known  as  the  above. 
It  was  lost  for  nearly  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  altho 
an  Ethiopic  version  was  then  found,  the  remarkable 
value  of  the  book  was  not  appreciated  until  this  genera- 
tion. It  is  of  "immeasurable  value"  as  giving  to  us 
"practically  the  only  historical  memorials  of  the  re- 
ligious development  of  Judaism  from  200  B.C.  to  a.d. 
100  and  particularly  of  that  side  of  Judaism  to  which 
historic  Christendom  in  large  measure  owes  its  ex- 
istence" (Charles).  In  the  days  of  Jesus  this  was 
regarded  as  an  inspired  work  by  many  holy  men.  There 
are  five  places  in  Jude  where  this  apostle  shows  un- 
doubted verbal  connection  with  Enoch.  There  are  at 
least  nineteen  places  in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  thirteen 


6o6     THE  NEW  ARCIiEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

in  Paul's  epistles  and  thirteen  in  the  gospels  where 
there  are  connections  in  thought  or  phrase.^^ 

Even  this  statement  does  not  express  fully  the  obli- 
gation of  early  Christianity  to  this  great  work.  There 
can  be  no  longer  any  doubt  that  the  title,  "Son  of  Man," 
which  our  Lord  so  constantly  used,  while  it  occasionally 
connected  itself  with  Daniel's  concept  of  the  Messiah 
(Matt.  24:  30,  26:  64),  in  most  instances  reflected  the 
usage  of  the  Book  of  Enoch.  By  adopting  the  current 
title  it  is  now  clear  that  our  Lord  "made  from  the 
outset  supernatural  claims" ;  tho  he  broke  entirely  from 
certain  external  Judaistic  conceptions  with  which  the 
title  is  often  connected  in  the  Book  of  Enoch.  In  the 
"Parables"  three  other  titles  are  applied  in  Enoch  for 
the  first  time  in  literature  to  the  personal  Messiah: 
"Christ,"  "The  Righteous  One,"  "The  Elect  One." 

Besides  this  close  verbal  connection  there  are 
equally  close  connections  of  thought  between  Enoch 
and  the  gospels  in  the  discussion  relating  to  the 
Messiah,  the  resurrection,  and  the  future  life  (Sheol). 
This  makes  clear  to  us,  what  had  previously  been 
obscure,  how  our  Lord  could  take  for  granted  in  his 
hearers  knowledge  on  these  points  not  to  be  found  in 
the  Old  Testament.  He  was  in  fact  setting  the  seal 
of  his  approval  on  the  general  spiritual  teaching  of 
this  well-known  Book  of  Enoch,  tho — as  our  quotations 
will  prove — by  no  means  approving  everything.  The 
following  quotations  will  suggest  Enoch's  position  re- 
garding the  future  world  and  the  kingdom  of  heaven: 

"Then  will  all  the  righteous  escape  and  will  live  until  they 
beget  a  thousand  children  and  all  the  days  of  their  youth  and  old 

''R.  H.  Charles,  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment (1913),  Vol.  II,  pp.  180#;  in  his  Book  of  Enoch  (1893),  pp.  41-49, 
Dr.  Charles  traces  26  connections  with  Revelations,  21  with  Paul,  etc. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      607 

age  will  they  complete  in  peace  .  .  .  and  I  came  to  a  river  of 
fire,  the  fire  of  which  flows  hke  water  .  .  .  and  from  thence 
I  went  to  another  place  which  is  still  more  horrible  than  the 
former,  and  I  saw  a  horrible  thing;  a  great  fire  was  there  which 
flamed  and  blazed,  and  the  place  was  cleft  as  far  as  the  abyss  .  .  . 
and  Uriel  spake  to  me,  This  place  is  the  prison  of  the  angels,  and 
here  they  will  be  imprisoned  forever  .  .  .  and  I  saw  the  spirits 
of  the  children  of  men  who  were  dead  .  .  .  the  souls  of  the 
righteous  (being)  separated  from  the  rest  ...  the  souls  (of 
sinners)  are  placed  apart  in  this  pain  till  the  great  day  of  judg- 
ment and  punishment  torture  the  revilers  forever  .    .    . 

And  the  Lord  of  Spirits  seated  him  (i.e.,  the  Messiah)  on  the 
throne  of  his  glory,  and  the  spirit  of  righteousness  was  poured 
out  upon  him,  and  the  word  of  his  mouth  slew  all  the  sinners  .  .  . 
and  those  who  rule  the  earth  will  fall  down  on  their  faces  before 
him  and  worship,  and  set  their  hope  on  that  Son  of  Man,  and  will 
petition  and  will  supplicate  for  mercy  at  his  hands.   .    .    . 

Fear  ye  not,  ye  souls  of  the  righteous,  and  be  hopeful  ye  that 
die  in  righteousness.  And  grieve  not  if  your  soul  descends  into 
Sheol  and  that  in  your  life  your  body  has  not  fared  as  your  good- 
ness deserved.  .  .  .  Now  therefore  I  swear  to  you,  the  righteous 
.  .  .  that  all  goodness  and  joy  and  glory  are  prepared  for  them, 
and  are  written  down  for  the  spirits  of  those  who  have  died  in 
righteousness,  and  manifold  good  will  be  given  to  you  in  recom- 
pense for  your  labor  and  that  your  lot  is  abundantly  beyond  the 
lot  of  the  living." 

While  the  use  of  this  work  by  New  Testament 
writers  can  hardly  be  doubted  in  view  of  the  many 
parallelisms,  we  can  not  fail  to  admire  the  fine  reserve 
and  self-restraint  shown  by  them  in  handling  this  well- 
known  material.^^ 

The  Testaments  of  the  Tivelve  Patriarchs  were 
originally  written  in  Hebrew  109-106  b.c._,  by  a  very 
religious  Pharisee.  This  work  is  of  supreme  importance 
because  of  its  high  ethical  teaching,   which   *'has   ob- 

="•  Compare  Jude,  6:17;  Rev.,  2:7,  3:5.  8:38,  9:5;  1  Cor.,  6:11;  2 
Cor.,  4:6;  John,  5:22,  with  1  Enoch,  chaps.  12,  25,  Z7,  38,  48,  60,  61,  69, 
77,  78. 


6o8    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

tained  a  real  immortality  by  influencing  the  thought 
and  diction  of  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  and 
even  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount"  (Charles).  While 
this  book  was  used  freely  in  the  first  century  of  our 
era,  it  shortly  afterward  disappeared  and  remained  for 
many  centuries  unmentioned.  In  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury a  manuscript  of  the  work  was  recovered  but  its 
value  has  been  properly  recognized  only  in  this  genera- 
tion. Its  author  looked  for  the  speedy  coming  of  the 
Messianic  kingdom  and  believed  in  the  resurrection  of 
the  body  and  a  new  transformed  life  after  death. 
Verbal  correspondences  have  been  traced  with  Matt. 
18:15,  35;  22:37-39;  25:35,  36;  Luke  2:19,  etc., 
while  St.  Paul  "seems  to  have  used  the  book  as  a  vade 
me  cum."  It  may  be  well  to  quote  some  of  these  great 
utterances : 

"Then  shall  the  Lord  raise  up  a  new  priest, 

And  to  him  all  the  words  of  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed ; 

And  he  shall  execute  a  righteous  judgment  upon  the  earth  for 

a  multitude  of  days, 
And  his  star  shall  arise  in  heaven  as  of  a  king  .    .    . 
And  there  shall  be  peace  in  all  the  earth  .    .    . 
And  in  his  priesthood  the  Gentiles  shall  be  multiplied  in 

knowledge  upon  the  earth, 
And  enlightened  through  the  grace  of  the  Lord : 
In  his  priesthood  shall  sin  come  to  an  end.   .    .    . 
And  he  shall  give  to  the  saints  to  eat  from  the  tree  of  life. 
And  the  Spirit  of  holiness  shall  be  on  them. 
And  Beliar  shall  be  bound  by  him, 
And  he  shall  give  power  to  his  children  to  tread  upon  the 

evil  spirits"  (Test,  of  Levi). 

"And  now,  my  children,  I  say  unto  you,  be  not  drunk  with 
wine ;  for  wine  turneth  the  mind  away  from  the  truth,  and  inspires 
the  passion  of  lust,  and  leadeth  the  eyes  into  error,  (and)  it  dis- 
turbeth  the  mind  with  filthy  thoughts  .  .  .  but  if  you  would  live 
soberly,  do  not  touch  wine  at  all,  lest  you  sin  in  words  of  outrage 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      609 

and  in  fightings  and  in  slanders  and  transgressions  of  the  com- 
mandments of  God,  and  you  perish  before  your  time." 

"And  after  these  things  shall  a  star  rise  to  you  from  Jacob  in 
peace. 

"And  a  man  shall  arise  like  the  Son  of  Righteousness,  walking 
with  the  sons  of  men  in  meekness  and  in  righteousness,  and  no  sin 
shall  be  found  in  him  and  the  heavens  shall  be  open  unto  him, 
.  .  .  and  he  shall  pour  out  the  spirit  of  grace  upon  you"  (Test, 
of  Judah  ) . 

"But  love  the  Lord  and  your  neighbor, 

"Have  compassion  on  the  poor  and  weak."  .  .  .  (Test,  of 
Issachar) . 

"And  now,  my  children,  I  bid  you  to  keep  the  commands  of  the 
Lord,  and  to  show  mercy  to  your  neighbors,  and  to  have  com- 
passion towards  all,  not  towards  men  only  but  also  towards  beasts 
.  .  .  and  if  you  have  not  the  wherewithal  to  give  to  him  that 
needeth,  have  compassion  for  him  in  bowels  of  mercy.  .  .  .  for 
in  the  degree  a  man  hath  compassion  upon  his  neighbors,  in  the 
same  degree  hath  the  Lord  also  upon  him."  .  .  .  (Test,  of  Ze- 
bulim). 

"Love  the  Lord  through  all  your  life  .    .    . 

"And  one  another  with  a  true  heart."   .    .    .    (Test,  of  Dan). 

"Hatred  therefore  is  evil,  for  it  constantly  mateth  with  lying, 
speaking  against  the  truth ;  and  it  maketh  small  things  to  be  great, 
and  causeth  the  light  to  be  darkness,  and  calleth  the  sweet  bitter, 
and  teacheth  slander  and  kindleth  wrath,  and  stirreth  up  war  and 
violence  and  all  covetousness ;  it  filleth  the  hearts  with  evil  and 
devilish  poison.   ... 

"Love  ye  one  another  from  the  heart;  and  if  a  man  sin  against 
thee  speak  peaceably  to  him  and  in  thy  soul  hold  not  guile;  and 
if  he  repent  and  confess,  forgive  him.  .  .  ,  If  a  man  prospers 
more  than  you  do  not  be  vexed,  but  pray  also  for  him  that  he  may 
have  perfect  prosperity"  (Test,  of  Gad). 

"If  you  work  that  which  is  good,  my  children, 

Both  men  and  angels  shall  bless  you ; 

And  God  shall  be  glorified  among  the  Gentiles  through  you. 

And  the  devil  shall  flee  from  you. 

And  the  wild  beasts  shall  fear  you, 

And  the  Lord  shall  love  you.''   .    .    . 


6io     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"Blessed  is  the  man  who  does  not  defile  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God, 
which  hath  been  put  and  breathed  into  him,  and  blessed  is  he  who 
returneth  it  to  his  Creator  as  pure  as  it  was  on  the  day  he  entrusted 
it  to  him"  {Test,  of  Naphtali). 

In  a  few  instances  Christian  additions  have  been 
made  to  this  Jewish  apocalypse,  as  can  be  seen,  for  ex- 
ample, in  the  following: 

"In  thee  shall  be  fulfilled  the  prophecy  of  heaven  (concerning 
the  Lamb  of  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world)  and  that  a  Blameless 
One  shall  be  delivered  up  for  the  lawless  men,  and  a  Sinless  One 
shall  die  for  ungodly  men  (in  the  blood  of  the  covenant)  for  the 
salvation  of  the  Gentiles  and  Israel,  and  shall  destroy  Beliar  and 
his  hosts  of  servants.   .    .    . 

"And  the  twelve  tribes  shall  be  gathered  together  (in  the 
temple),  and  all  the  Gentiles,  until  the  Most  High  shall  send  forth 
his  salvation  in  the  visitation  of  an  only  begotten  prophet  (and 
he  shall  enter  into  the  temple ;  and  there  shall  the  Lord  be  treated 
with  outrage,  and  he  shall  be  lifted  upon  a  tree,  and  the  veil  of 
the  temple  shall  be  rent,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  shall  pass  on  to  the 
Gentiles  as  fire  poured  forth,  and  he  shall  ascend  from  hades  and 
shall  pass  from  earth  into  heaven)"  {Test,  of  Benjamin). 

The  Book  of  Jubilees,  an  Ethiopic  version  of  which 
was  published  1895,  contrasts  greatly  with  the  Testa- 
ments of  the  Tzvelve  Patriarchs.  It  was  written  about 
the  same  period  (135-105  B.C.),  but  emphasizes  the 
supremacy  of  the  law  more  after  the  manner  of  the 
Jews  against  whom  Paul  directed  his  scathing  dialectic. 
It  shows  how  great  was  the  gulf  which  divided  the 
legalistic  wing  of  the  Pharisees  from  the  branch  repre- 
sented by  such  works  as  i  Enoch  and  The  Testaments 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs.  The  author  urges  that  the 
law  is  the  complete  and  ultimate  authority  of  mankind, 
being  of  everlasting  validity.  He  condemns  unsparingly 
the  Hellenistic  spirit,  believing  that  the  Gentiles  must 
be  eternally  reprobate,  no  Gentile  being  even  allowed 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      6ii 

to  keep  the  Sabbath.  The  law  being  the  expression  of 
absohite  truth,  there  was,  according  to  this  writer,  no 
room  for  further  revelation,  not  even  for  prophecy.  He 
thought  of  the  Sabbath  in  much  the  same  way  as  the 
Pharisees  against  whom  Jesus  directed  his  epoch- 
making  word  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  and 
not  man  for  the  Sabbath;  while  those  who  were  not 
circumcised  became  by  divine  predestination  ''children 
of  destruction."  His  priestly  sympathies  were  so  great 
that  he  taught  that  the  coming  Messiah  should  spring, 
not  from  David,  but  from  Levi.  The  spirit  of  the  book 
is  well  shown  by  the  prayer, 

"May  thy  name  and  the  name  of  thy  sons  go  forth  and  traverse 
every  land  and  region. 
Then  shall  the  Gentiles  fear  before  thy  face, 
'And  all  the  nations  shall  quake." 

The  Psalms  of  Solomon,  often  called  The  Psalms 
of  the  Pharisees,  were  written  70-40  B.C.  Some  of  the 
authors  believed  in  a  Messiah  springing  from  the  royal 
line  of  Judah;  others  expected  him  from  the  priestly 
line  of  Levi.  The  hope  for  the  Messiah  was  very  intense, 
and  shows  the  eager  expectation  of  the  people.  Altho 
the  work  doubtless  had  considerable  influence  in  the 
century  preceding  Christ's  birth,  it  made  little  per- 
manent impression  on  Christian  thought  and  soon 
passed  into  an  oblivion  which  continued  for  some  six- 
teen centuries.  A  new  Greek  version  came  to  light  in 
1908,  and  a  Syriac  version  in  1909.  The  spirit  of  the 
book  can  be  seen  from  the  following  quotations: 

"The  nations  reproach  Jerusalem,  trampling  it  down; 

Her  beauty  was  dragged  down  from  the  throne  of  glory; 
She  girded  on  sackcloth  instead  of  comely  raiment; 
A  rope  was  about  her  head  instead  of  a  crown. 


6i2    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Thou  art  our  God  and  we  the  people  whom  thou  hast  loved ; 
Behold,  and  show  pity,  O  God  of  Israel,  for  we  are  thine  .  .  . 
For  thou  didst  choose  the  seed  of  Abraham  before  all  the 

nations. 
Let  the  sinners  perish  together  at  the  presence  of  the  Lord, 
But  let  the  Lord's  pious  ones  inherit  the  promises  of  the  Lord. 
The  pious  of  the  Lord  shall  live  by  it  (the  law)  forever ; 
The  paradise  of  the  Lord,  the  trees  of  life,  are  his  pious  ones. 
Behold,  O  Lord,  and  raise  up  unto  them  their  King,  the  Son 

of  David,   .    .    . 
He  shall  have  the  heathen  nations  to  serve  him  under  his 

yoke  .    .    . 
Nations  shall  come  from  the  end  of  the  earth  to  see  his 

glory  .    .    . 
All  nations  shall  be  in  fear  before  him.   .    .    . 
For  God  will  make  him  mighty  by  means  of  his  Holy  Spirit." 

The  above  clearly  shows  the  popular  expectation  as 
to  the  coming  Messiah,  which  Jesus  had  to  combat 
during  all  his  life.  The  Gentiles  were  not  wandering 
children  whom  God,  the  All-Father,  was  seeking  to 
bring  back  to  repentance;  neither  was  it  possible  for 
heretic  Jews  to  be  forgiven  for  their  heresy. 

It  is  suggestive  to  note  that  The  Story  of  Ahikar, 
found  by  Dr.  Rubensohn  in  his  excavations  at 
Elephantine  in  1906-1908,^" — which  had  been  popular 
among  the  Jews  for  400  years  *^  before  Jesus — gave  the 
story  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  tells  in  a  most  vivid  way 
how  a  wicked  boy  maltreated  his  father  and  wasted  his 
living;  but  instead  of  the  father's  offering  him  forgive- 
ness he  put  him  in  chains,  gave  him  a  thousand  blows 
on  the  shoulders  and  a  thousand  and  one  blows  on  his 
loins,  and  fed  him  on  bread  and  water.     Nadan,  the 

■"Published  by  Sachau  in  1911,  in  Aramaische  Papyri  und  Ostraka  aus 
Elephantine,  and  translated  by  Charles  in  his  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepi- 
grapha,  II :  715-784. 

"  See  for  early  dating,  Charles,  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha, 
11:715-716. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      613 

repentant  youth,  cried  bitterly  to  his  father  for  for- 
giveness, saying  that  he  indeed  was  no  more  worthy  to 
be  called  his  son,  but  that  he  would  gladly  be  his 
servant  and  tend  his  horses  and  feed  his  pigs;  but  the 
father  sternly  replied:  "To  him  that  doeth  good,  good 
shall  be  recompensed;  and  to  him  that  doeth  evil,  evil 
shall  be  rewarded."  The  influence  of  this  story  and  its 
recognized  connection  with  our  Lord's  parable  is  seen 
from  the  words  put  into  the  lips  of  the  prodigal  son  in 
the  Syriac  version :  "Forgive  me  this  folly ;  I  will  tend 
thy  horses  and  feed  thy  pigs  which  are  in  thy  house."  " 
It  may  be  added  that  while  the  spirit  of  Ahikar  was 
very  different  from  the  father  whom  Jesus  pictured, 
some  of  his  moral  maxims  are  well  worth  remember- 
ing: 

"My  son,  it  is  better  to  remove  stones  with  a  wise  man  than 

to  drink  wine  with  a  fool." 
"My  son,  draw  not  near  to  a  woman  that  is  a  whisperer,  nor 

to  one  whose  voice  is  high." 
"My  son,  the  beating  of  a  boy  is  like  manure  to  a  garden." 
"My  Son,  the  flock  that  makes  many  tracks  becomes  the  portion 

of  the  wolves." 
"My  Son,  sweeten  thy  tongue  .    .    .   for  the  tail  of  a  dog 

giveth  him  bread,  and  his  mouth  gets  him  blows." 
"Better  is  one  sparrow  in  thy  hand  than  a  thousand  on  the 

wing." 
"My  son,  if  thou  hear  an  evil  matter,  put  it  seven  fathoms  deep 

under  ground." 

Altho  the  above  story  of  Ahikar  was  very  popular 
in  the  days  of  Jesus,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it 
originated  at  an  early  period  (420-400  B.C.)  before  the 
great  ethical  reformation  out  of  which  came  the  litera- 
ture which  we  have  been  describing.    Very  different  in 

^'  See  Charles,  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha,  II  :775,  column  1,  first 
paragraph,  and  cf.  Luke  15 :  19. 


6i4    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

spirit  is  The  Letter  of  Aristeas  (originated  130-70  b.c... 
but  issued  in  the  present  form  about  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Christian  era).  This  is  the  first  book  in 
which  the  law  is  described  as  ''Scripture"  and  as  the 
"Oracles  of  God,"  and  in  it  is  to  be  found  what  may 
well  be  called  a  negative  version  of  the  Golden  Rule: 

"As  you  wish  that  no  evil  should  befall  you,  but  to  be  partak- 
er of  all  good  things,  so  you  should  act  on  the  same  principle  to- 
wards others." 

We  have  now  mentioned  the  more  influential  works 
written  in  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  Chris- 
tian era,  with  the  exception  of  the  Fragments  of  a 
Zadokite  Work  which  has  recently  been  brought  to 
light  by  Dr.  Schechter.*^  This  strange  Hebrew  book 
(which  Dr.  Charles  believes  to  have  been  written  18-8 
B.C.  by  certain  reformed  Sadducean  priests,  but  some 
other  scholars,  notably  Prof.  G.  Margoliouth,  believe 
to  have  been  written  very  early  in  the  first  century  by 
poorly  instructed  Christians  who  regarded  John  the 
Baptist  as  the  Messiah  and  Jesus  as  the  "Teacher  of 
Righteousness")  deserves  close  inspection,  tho  its  mean- 
ing may  yet  remain  obscure. 

The  author  evidently  was  a  priest  of  the  Temple  and 
belonged  to  a  party  called  "the  penitents  of  Israel," 
who  accepted  as  leaders  "the  Star"  and  "Law-giver" 
and  had  entered  into  a  "New  Covenant"  and  "Covenant 
of  Repentance,"  which  involved  a  great  moral  and 
spiritual  change.  He  hated  the  orthodox  Pharisees, 
declaring  that  they  made  void  the  written  law  by  rais- 
ing a  body  of  oral  tradition  as  a  "wall"  about  it.  But 
he  was  almost  equally  opposed  to  his  brethren  the 
Sadducees,  declaring  the  Prophets  as  well  as  the  Law 

*^  Documents  of  Jewish  Sectaries,  ed.  by  S.  Schechter,  1910. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      615 

to  be  a  religious  authority,  teaching  a  blessed  immor- 
tality, the  existence  of  angels,  the  advent  of  the 
Messiah,  a  high  moral  code,  and  the  wickedness  of 
divorce.  We  will  try  to  give  sufficiently  lengthy  quota- 
tions to  represent  fairly  the  best  teachings  of  this 
strange  old  document,  which  almost  certainly  was 
written  within  the  generation  in  which  Jesus  appeared. 
Even  if  the  scholars  are  mistaken  who  think  of  the 
writer  of  this  work  as  a  Christian,  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  as  Dr.  Charles  well  says,  that  such  a  soul  would 
eagerly  have  accepted  Christianity  when  it  was  offered 
(c/.  Acts  6:7). 

"Because  of  the  trespass  of  those  who  forsook  him 
He  hid  his  face  from  Israel  and  from  his  sanctuary 
And  gave  them  over  to  the  sword.   .    .    . 
And  he  raised  them  up  a  Teacher  of  Righteousness 
To  lead  them  in  the  way  of  his  heart. 
And  now  hearken  unto  me,  all  ye  who  have  entered  into  the 

Covenant.  .    .    . 
Long-suffering  is  with  him, 
And  plenteousness  of  forgivenesses, 
To  pardon  those  who  repent  of  transgression.   .    .    . 
And  through  his  Messiah  he  shall  make  them  know  his  holy 

Spirit. 
And  he  is  true,  and  in  the  true  interpretation  of  his  name 

their  names.  .    .    . 
But  God  remembered  the  covenant  with  the  forefathers.  .  .  . 
And  he  made  them  to  hearken 
And  they  digged  the  well.   .    .    . 

"The  well  is  the  Law,  and  they  who  digged  it  are  the  penitents 
of  Israel  who  went  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Judah  and  sojourned 
in  the  land  of  Damascus,  all  of  whom  God  called  princes  .  .  . 
and  the  nobles  of  the  people  are  those  who  came  to  dig  the  well  by 
the  precepts,  in  the  which  the  Law-giver  ordained  that  they  should 
walk  throughout  the  full  period  of  the  wickedness.     And  save 


6i6    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

them  they  shall  get  nothing  until  there  arises  a  Teacher  of  Right- 
eousness in  the  end  of  the  days.   .    .    . 

"This  is  the  word  which  Jeremiah  spake  to  Baruch,  the  son  of 
Neriah,  and  Elisha  to  his  servant  Gehazi.  All  the  men  who  entered 
into  the  New  Covenant  in  the  land  of  Damascus  (and  yet  turned 
backward  and  acted  treacherously  and  departed  from  the  spring 
of  living  waters),  they  shall  not  be  reckoned  in  the  assembly  of 
the  people  and  in  its  register  they  shall  not  be  written,  from  the 
day  when  there  was  gathered  in  the  Unique  Teacher  until  there 
shall  arise  the  Messiah  from  Aaron  and  from  Israel  .  ,  .  and 
when  his  deeds  become  known  in  accordance  with  the  Midrash  of 
the  Law,  in  which  walk  the  men  of  the  perfection  of  holiness,  no 
man  shall  consent  to  be  with  him  in  wealth  and  labor,  for  all  the 
saints  of  the  Most-High  have  cursed  him  .  .  .  and  there  shall 
not  come  unto  them  or  unto  their  families  a  share  in  the  house  of 
the  Law.  .  .  .  And  on  the  Sabbath  day  no  man  shall  utter  a  word 
of  folly  and  of  vanity,  no  man  shall  lend  aught  to  his  neighbor. 
None  shall  dispute  on  matters  of  wealth  and  gain.  None  shall 
speak  on  matters  of  work  and  labor  to  be  done  on  the  following 
morning.  ,  .  .  No  man  shall  eat  on  the  Sabbath  day  aught  save 
that  which  is  prepared  or  is  perishing  in  the  field  ...  he  shall 
not  draw  out  into  any  vessel  ...  no  man  shall  put  on  garments 
which  are  filthy  or  were  brought  by  a  Gentile  unless  they  were 
washed  in  water  or  were  rubbed  with  frankincense.  .  .  .  No 
man  shall  carry  anything  from  the  house  to  the  outside,  or  from 
the  outside  into  the  house.  .  .  .  Let  not  the  nursing  father  take 
the  sucking  child  to  go  out  or  come  in  on  the  Sabbath.  ,  .  .  No 
man  shall  help  an  animal  in  its  delivery  on  the  Sabbath  day.  And 
if  it  fall  into  a  pit  or  ditch,  he  shall  not  raise  it  on  the  Sabbath.  No 
man  shall  rest  in  a  place  near  to  the  Gentiles  on  the  Sabbath.  And 
if  any  person  fall  into  a  place  of  water,  he  shall  not  bring  him  out 
by  a  ladder,  or  a  cord,  or  an  instrument." 

This  completes  our  examination  of  the  apocryphal 
works  published  previous  to  the  Christian  era.  There 
are  a  few,  however,  arising  during  the  first  Christian 
century  deserving  of  special  attention. 

The  Sibylline  Oracles  (i6o  b.c.-a.d.  400)  have  been 
so  long  known,  and  it  is  so  impossible  to  arrange  their 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      617 

obscure  statement  chronologically,  that  they  must  be 
omitted  entirely  from  this  brief  summary/* 

The  AssiDiipfioii  of  Moses  was  probably  written  a.d. 
7-29  in  Hebrew.  We  possess  only  one  manuscript  of 
this  work,  a  Latin  palimpsest  of  the  fifth  century,  dis- 
covered and  published  by  Ceriani  in  186 1.  It  was  so 
popular  that  a  Greek  version  appeared  in  the  first  cen- 
tury, of  which  a  few  phrases  are  preserved,  in  Acts 
7:  36;  Jude  9,  16,  18.  The  work  was  written  by  a 
Pharisee,  a  quietist,  during  the  lifetime  of  our  Lord. 
The  author's  hero  was  not  the  great  soldier  Judas 
Maccabseus,  but  the  obscure  group  of  unknown  martyrs 
who  in  each  age  offered  themselves  to  Jehovah.  His 
conception  of  spiritual  religion  and  his  opposition  to 
the  alliance  of  religion  and  politics  was  very  much  like 
that  held  by  his  greater  contemporary,  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. He  was  in  favor  of  the  simple  life,  and  was 
directly  opposed  to  those  impious  men  who  are  *'self- 
pleasers,  dissemblers  .  .  .  lovers  of  banquets  .  .  . 
gluttons,  gourmands  .  .  .  devourers  of  the  goods  of 
the  poor."  He  thoroughly  believed  in  the  coming  of  a 
conquering  Messiah. 

"And  then  his  kingdom  shall  appear  throughout  all  his  creation. 
And  Satan  shall  be  no  more, 
And  sorrow  shall  depart  with  him.   .    .    . 
And  the  horns  of  the  sun  shall  be  broken,  and  it  shall  be 

turned  into  darkness; 
(And  the  moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  and  shall  be  turned 

wholly  into  blood.   .    .    . 
For  the  Most  High  shall  arise,  the  eternal  God  alone, 
And  he  will  appear  to  punish  the  Gentiles,   .    .    . 
And  thou  shalt  look  from  on  high  and  shalt  see  thy  enemies 

in  Gehenna, 

**  The  first  and  most  beautiful  translation  of  this  work  was  by  Dr. 
Milton  S.  Terry,  1890,  2d  ed.  (much  enlarged),  1899. 


6i8    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

And  thou  shalt  recognize  them  and  shalt  rejoice, 

And  thou  shalt  give  thanks  and  shalt  confess  thy  Creator." 

Second  Baruk,  of  which  a  Greek  fragment  was  pub- 
lished from  Oxyrhynchus  in  1903,  was  written  in  the  lat- 
ter half  of  the  first  century  (a.d.  50-90)  by  an  orthodox 
Jew  who  was  a  "good  representative  of  the  Judaism 
against  which  Paul's  dialectic  was  directed"  (Charles). 
With  the  exception  of  the  last  nine  chapters,  this  work 
was  lost  sight  of  for  twelve  hundred  years.  A  Syriac 
version  (sixth  century)  was  published  by  Ceriani  in 
1883.  This  book,  coming  as  it  does  from  the  very  gen- 
eration out  of  which  the  New  Testament  writings 
originated,  gives  the  arguments  of  a  Jewish  contem- 
porary of  St.  Paul  who  refused  to  accept  Christianity 
and  attempted  by  this  document  to  uphold  his  declining 
faith.  This  fact  certainly  gives  great  interest  to  the 
words  which  we  now  quote: 

"Then  all  who  have  fallen  asleep  in  hope  of  him  shall  rise  again. 
.  .  .  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  when  that  appointed  day  has 
gone  by  that  then  shall  the  aspect  of  those  who  are  condemned 
afterward  be  changed  and  the  glory  of  those  who  are  justified; 
for  the  aspect  of  those  who  now  act  wickedly  shall  become  worse 
than  it  is,  as  they  shall  suffer  torment.  Also  as  for  the  glory  of 
those  who  have  now  been  justified  in  my  law  .  .  .  they  may  be 
able  to  acquire  and  receive  the  world  which  does  not  die,  which  is 
then  promised  to  them.  But  .  .  .  above  all  shall  those  who 
come  then  lament  that  they  rejected  my  law. 

"But  those  who  have  been  saved  by  their  works, 

And  to  whom  the  Law  has  been  now  a  hope  .    .    . 

They  shall  be  made  like  unto  the  angels 

And  shall  be  made  equal  to  the  stars   .    .    . 

For  lo !  we  see  now  the  multitude  of  the  prosperity  of  the 
Gentiles   .    .    . 

But  they  shall  be  accounted  as  spittle.   .    .    . 

For  though  Adam  first  sinned 

And  brought  untimely  death  upon  all, 


THE   EARLY   CHRISTIAN   CENTURIES      619 

Yet  of  those  who  were  born  from  him 

Each  one  of  them  has  prepared  for  his  own  soul  torment  to 

come. 
And  again  each  one  of  them  has  chosen  for  himself  glories 

to  come   .    .    . 
Each  of  us  has  been  the  Adam  of  his  own  soul. 

"And  Zion  has  been  taken  from  us 
And  we  have  nothing  now  save  the  Mighty  One  and  his 

Law  .    .    . 
For  the  youth  of  the  world  is  past, 

And  the  strength  of  the  creation  already  exhausted  .    ,    , 
And  the  pitcher  is  near  to  the  cistern 
And  the  ship  to  the  port  .    .    . 
And  life  to  its  consummation." 

Fourth  Ezra  was  completed  about  a.d.  120.  This 
work  has  been  known  from  the  eighteenth  century,  but 
the  pubHcation  in  1875  of  a  new  manuscript  was  epoch- 
making,  changing  the  whole  standpoint  of  the  discus- 
sion. The  work  is  a  Jewish  defense  of  the  law,  the 
acceptance  (not  observance)  of  which  is  the  standard 
of  judgment,  the  author  recognizing  the  inherent  weak- 
ness of  the  law  as  a  redemptive  power  {cf.  Rom.,  chap. 
7).  There  are  a  number  of  resemblances  to  the  New 
Testament  in  form  and  diction,  but  no  direct  de- 
pendence :" 

"And  I  said :  O  Lord  my  Lord,  out  of  all  the  woods  of  the 
earth  and  all  the  trees  thereof,  thou  hast  chosen  thee  one  vine; 
out  of  all  the  lands  of  the  world  thou  has  chosen  thee  one  plant- 
ing ground;  out  of  all  the  flowers  of  the  world  thou  hast  chosen 
thee  one  lily;  out  of  all  the  depths  of  the  sea  thou  hast  replenished 
for  thyself  one  river;  out  of  all  the  cities  that  have  been  built 
thou  hast  sanctified  Sion  unto  thyself ;  out  of  the  birds  that  have 
been  created  thou  hast  called  to  thyself  one  dove  .  .  .  out  of 
all  the  peoples,  thou  hast  gotten  thee  one  people;  and  the  Law 
which  thou  didst  approve  out  of  all  laws  thou  hast  bestowed  upon 
the   people   whom   thou   didst  desire.   .    .    .   For   my   Son,  the 

*"  Yet  see,  for  Paul's  familiar  acquaintance  with  this  book,  Expository 
Times,  1916,  pp.  551-556. 


620    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Messiah,  shall  be  revealed,  together  with  those  who  are  with  him, 
and  shall  rejoice  the  survivors  four  hundred  years.  And  it  shall 
be  after  these  years  that  my  Son,  the  Messiah,  shall  die  and  all 
in  whom  there  is  human  breath.  Then  shall  the  world  be  turned 
into  the  primeval  silence  seven  days,  like  as  at  the  first  beginnings ; 
so  that  no  man  is  left  .  .  .  and  the  Most-High  shall  be  revealed 
upon  the  throne  of  judgment;  and  then  Cometh  the  end.   .    .    . 

"Think  not  upon  those  who  have  walked  in  devious  ways  be- 
fore thee  .    .    . 
But  regard  them  who  have  gloriously  taught  thy  law; 
Be  not  wroth  with  those  that  are  deemed  worse  than  the 

beasts, 
But  love  them  that  have  always  put  their  trust  in  thy  glory." 

The  Book  of  the  Secrets  of  Enoch  (II  Enoch)  has 
been  preserved  to  us  only  through  two  Slavonic  manu- 
scripts which  came  to  light  in  1880  and  1884.  It  was 
written  by  a  Hellenistic  Jew  in  Egypt  a.d.  1-50.  It 
often  exhibits  striking  parallelisms  with  New  Testa- 
ment diction  and  thought,  and  clears  up  several  dark 
Bible  passages.  It  was  lost  for  twelve  hundred  years, 
but  was  much  admired  both  by  Christians  and  heretics 
in  the  first  centtiries.  The  author  sees  a  blessed  im- 
mortality for  those  who  "avert  their  eyes  from  iniquity 
and  make  righteous  judgment  and  give  bread  to  the 
hungering  and  cover  the  naked  with  clothing  and  raise 
up  the  fallen  and  help  injured  orphans";  but  terrific 
tortures  in  fiery  rivers  and  mountains  of  ice  for  those 
who  "seeing  the  poor,  take  away  their  goods  and  them- 
selves wax  rich;  who  being  able  to  satisfy  the  empty, 
made  the  hungering  to  die;  being  able  to  clothe,  strip 
the  naked."     One  beautiful  command  is: 

"If  ill  bequltals  befall  you,  return  them  not  neither  to  neighbor 
nor  enemy  because  the  Lord  will  return  them  for  you  and  be 
your  avenger  on  the  day  of  Great  Judgment,  that  there  be  no 
avenging  here  among  men." 


THE   EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      621 

Another  beautiful  passage  is: 

"Blessed  is  he  who  turns  back  from  the  changeable  path  and 
walks  along  the  straight  path.   ,    .    . 

"Blessed  is  he  who  sows  the  seed  of  righteousness  for  he  shall 
reap  sevenfold.   .    .    . 

"Blessed  is  he  in  whom  is  truth,  that  he  may  speak  truth  to  his 
neighbor.   .    .    . 

"Blessed  is  he  in  whose  mouth  is  mercy  and  gentleness." 

In  considering  the  above  works  produced  by  the 
Jews  in  the  two  centuries  nearest  to  the  birth  of  Jesus, 
we  are  struck  by  the  fact  that  many  of  the  best  pro- 
ductions were  written  in  Galilee,  which  is  here  proved 
to  have  been  the  home  of  the  religious  seer  and  mystic. 
The  disciples  of  our  Lord  were  brought  up  in  an  atmos- 
phere created  by  these  books,  and  were  doubtless  them- 
selves acquainted  with  many  of  them,  as  were  the  other 
writers  of  the  New  Testament.  In  many  directions 
these  writings  show  an  advance  upon  the  religious  and 
ethical  teachings  of  the  Old  Testament.  Especially  do 
we  find  the  rather  hopeless  and  gloomy  outlook  of  the 
faithful  concerning  the  future  world  to  be  transformed 
into  one  of  joy  almost  equal  to  the  New  Testament 
vision.  We  now  see  that  the  Christian  doctrine  did 
not  leap  full  grown  into  existence  without  any  prepa- 
ration for  it,  but  that  the  God  of  the  centuries  had  been 
providentially  preparing  the  hearts  of  men  for  this  new 
teaching.  We  see  here  in  some  books  the  legalism  in 
its  full  maturity  which  Jesus  condemned;  but  on  the 
other  hand,  we  find  some  beautiful  teachings  from  a 
little  group  of  mystics  who,  when  they  heard  the  words 
of  Jesus,  must  have  rejoiced  with  unspeakable  joy  as 
they  gladly  accepted  the  words  of  grace  that  fell  from 
his  lips.*^ 

^°  Excepting  where  otherwise  mentioned  the  translations  of  the  above 


622     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

We  have  now  considered  all  the  most  influential 
Jewish  works  published  before  the  end  of  the  Apostolic 
age,  excepting  Josephus,  Philo,  and  the  Talmud. 

We  must  omit  more  than  a  cursory  mention  of 
Josephus  and  Philo,  tho  the  former  throws  more  light 
upon  the  social,  religious  and  political  conditions  of  the 
first  century  than  any  other  extra-biblical  book,  and 
the  latter,  as  the  greatest  Hebrew  philosopher  of  the 
first  century  and  the  chief  exponent  of  the  allegorical 
method  of  interpreting  the  Old  Testament,  had  without 
doubt  an  enormous  influence  on  the  development  of 
early  Christian  theology  and  hermeneutics.  But  the 
large  influence  of  these  two  writers  upon  Christianity 
was  pretty  fully  understood  centuries  ago. 

It  may  be  appropriate,  however,  to  note  that  modern 
criticism,  while  generally  condemning  as  an  interpola- 
tion the  passage  in  Josephus  which  speaks  of  Jesus  as 
"a  doer  of  marvelous  works"  and  closes  with  the  words 
so  impossible  from  the  pen  of  an  orthodox  Hebrew, 
"This  was  the  Christ"  {Ant.,  XVIII:  6,  3/.);  yet  ac- 
cepts as  genuine  the  passage  in  which  he  speaks  of  "the 
good  man,"  John  the  Baptist  {Ant.,  XVIII:  116-119), 
and  also  accepts  with  almost  equal  certainty  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  notice  of  the  death  of  James,  "the  brother 
of  Jesus  who  was  called  Christ"  {Ant.,  XX:  200/.). 

The  only  new  thing  that  need  be  mentioned  con- 
cerning Philo  is  that  the  theory,  once  so  popular,  which 
claimed  that  the  Fourth  Gospel  could  not  have  been 
written  by  St.  John  because  it  was  full  of  Philo's  later 

works  have  been  taken  from  the  authoritative  work  of  R.  H.  Charles,  The 
Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha  of  the  Old  Testament,  Oxford,  1913.  The 
judgments  ventured  concerning  these  works  have  ordinarily  been  those 
approved  by  Dr.  Charles  in  his  Religious  Development  between  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testaments,  1915. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      623 

neoplatonism,  has  received  a  severe  shock.  The 
strength  of  the  theory  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  favorite 
philosophic  terms  of  Philo,  such  as  life,  light,  logos 
("word"),  truth,  paraclete  ("comforter"  or  "strength- 
ener"),  only  begotten,  firstborn,  etc.,  v^ere  also  favorite 
terms  with  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  (who  in 
this  respect  wholly  differed  from  the  Synoptics)  just 
as  they  were  favorite  terms  with  Barnabas,  Justin 
Martyr,  and  Origen.  But  modern  critical  study — in- 
cluding a  thorough  analysis  of  the  Stoic  doctrine  of  the 
Logos  and  of  the  ancient  literature  of  Gnosticism,  at 
Alexandria  and  elsewhere — has  proved  that  there  was 
a  much  greater  divergence  in  vocabulary  and  thought 
between  Philo  and  the  Fourth  Gospel  than  had  pre- 
viously been  supposed.^^  It  now  seems  reasonable  to 
conclude,  after  a  study  of  the  literature  of  the  first 
Christian  century  and  the  one  preceding,  that  most  of 
the  resemblances  found  are  "due  to  the  common  stock 
of  ideas  which  belonged  to  thoughtful  men  at  that 
period"  (Drummond).  Even  Dr.  Moffatt,  who  still 
holds  to  certain  "reminiscences  and  adaptations"  of 
Philo's  language  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  acknowledges  the 
contradiction  in  thought  between  the  two — Jesus  Christ, 
the  supreme  Logos,  being  set  over  against  the  many 
"powers"  and  "words"  of  the  philosophers.*^ 

Finally,  the  discovery  of  rare  old  non-Christian 
works,  such  as  we  have  described  above,  has  shown 
that  the  religious  notions  and  mystic  expressions  of 
certain  previously  unknown  Jewish  writers  of  Palestine 

*''  See  especially  Siegfried,  Philo  von  Alexandria  (1875)  ;  F.  Legge, 
Forej-unners  and  Rivals  of  Christianity  (2  Vols.),  1915,  and  a  good  state- 
ment of  the  present  state  of  the  controversy  by  James  Drummond, 
Hastings,  Diet,  of  Bible,  Extra  Vol.,  pp.  197-208. 

*^  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  New  Testament,  1914,  pp.  320- 
325. 


624     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

or  Egypt,  of  the  first  century  or  earlier,  resemble  in  an 
unexpected  degree  that  of  John's  gospel. 

The  Talmud  ought  undoubtedly  to  be  mentioned  as 
perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  the  literature  influencing 
the  thought  of  the  first  Christian  century. 

This  mammoth  work,  much  larger  than  the  Encyclo- 
pcodia  Britannica,  has  no  logical  beginning  or  end,  but 
is  merely  a  collection  of  miscellaneous  remarks  by 
ancient  Rabbis,  mostly  concerning  theology,  ethics, 
synagog  laws  or  Jewish  civil  rights  and  jurisprudence, 
with  some  gossip  about  distinguished  rabbis.  Its  com- 
position may  have  begun  possibly  as  early  as  the  Exile 
and  certainly  several  centuries  before  the  Christian  era, 
and  ended  not  earlier  than  a.d.  500 ;  yet  the  first  century, 
in  which  the  great  schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel  op- 
posed each  other,  is  the  center  of  its  interest.  Its  con- 
tents consist  of  the  Mishna  (oral  "teaching"),  which 
include  sixty-three  tractates  embodying  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture  and  rabbinic  decisions  from  a.d.  10  to 
A.D.  220;  and  the  Gemara,  or  interpretation  of  those 
earlier  decisions  by  later  rabbis  who  lived  from  a.d. 
220-500.  It  was  in  two  recensions,  the  Palestinian  and 
Babylonian,  the  former  being  written  in  Hebrew  and 
Western  Aramaic  and  being  more  precise;  and  the 
latter  in  Eastern  Aramaic,  and  filled  with  obscure  and 
discursive  remarks,  often  very  slightly  connected  with 
the  text  which  they  are  supposed  to  explain.  The  latter 
recension,  however,  shows  a  broader  world  sympathy 
than  the  former,  and  we  shall  hereafter  confine  ourselves 
to  its  consideration. 

It  is  very  easy  for  a  Jew,  who  loves  everything  con- 
nected with  Jewish  thought,  to  exaggerate  the  value 
and  breadth  of  interest  shown  in  this  national  mis- 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      625 

cellany.  Thus  a  well-known  rabbi  has  recently  declared 
not  only  that  the  Talmud  contains  poetry  which  sur- 
passes the  Iliad  of  Homer,  but  that  its  writers  come 
from  almost  every  land  and  walk  in  life.  *'You  will 
find  a  contribution  from  a  plain,  modest,  unskilled 
laborer  who  made  his  livelihood  as  a  burden-carrier, 
next  to  an  essay  of  the  great  Rabon  Gamaliel;  a 
homiletic  explanation  from  a  rabbi  next  to  a  story  of 
a  mermaid  by  an  old  experienced  tar ;  a  sketch  of  plant 
life  by  a  simple  farmer  arrayed  in  line  with  an  essay 
about  medicinal  anatomy  by  a  famous  medical  sage. 
.  .  .  Jesus  and  Jewish  Christians  and  even  pagans  have 
acquired  some  place  among  its  contributors,  for  there 
are  extracts  by  Sadducees,  Epicureans,  Romans,  Per- 
sians and  Chaldeans  whose  opinions  are  published,  even 
tho  not  in  harmony  with  the  Talmudic  faith  or  creed."  ^^ 
This  gives  quite  an  incorrect  view  of  the  facts. 
Dr.  Goldschmidt  gives  an  accurate  statement  of  the 
real  value  of  this  work  in  the  Preface  and  Introduction 
to  his  edition  of  the  Talmud.  He  says  wisely  that  it 
should  neither  be  counted  sacred  nor  a  book  of  the 
devil;  it  is  as  false  to  claim  that  it  contains  all  the 
treasures  of  science  and  religion  and  to  read  a  high 
moral  meaning  into  every  foolish  story  as  it  is  to  select 
a  few  places  in  such  a  gigantic  work  for  criticism  and 
ignore  its  more  noble  teaching.  "The  Talmud  is  a 
collection  of  debates,  doctrines,  sentences,  stories,  and 
anecdotes  of  which  the  greater  part  were  and  are  in- 
structive; many,  however,  remaining,  according  to  our 
conceptions,  foolish  and  silly."  ^** 

*' Naphtali  Herz  Imber,  in  Report  of  the  Commission  of  Education  for 
1894-5,  Vol.  2,  Washington,  1896. 

'^Der  Babylonische  Talmud,  von  Lazarus  Goldschmidt  (8  vols.),  1896- 
1909,  p.  xvi. 


626     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  fact  is  that  the  Tahiiud  was  written  wholly  by 
Jews,  for  Jews,  and  about  Jews.  The  contributions  on 
medicine,  history,  philology,  agriculture,  etc.,  are 
merely  illustrative,  while  Gentiles  and  Christians  are 
mentioned  only  to  be  condemned;  but  in  spite  of  all 
this  it  is  a  vast  and  noble  work  and  worthy  of  our  pro- 
foundest  admiration. ^^  Altho,  as  Goldschmidt  says, 
this  vast  work  until  very  recently  was  hidden  in  an 
obscurity  more  mysterious  than  any  Egyptian  hiero- 
glyphics, yet  it  is  now  open  to  scholars.  There  is  to-day 
no  written  record  nor  oral  tradition  known  to  any 
Hebrew  rabbi  which  is  not  known  by  some  Christian 
scholar.^^ 

A  very  fine  edition  of  the  Talmud  in  fifteen  volumes, 
giving  variants,  has  recently  been  published  by  Rab- 
binovicz;  an  excellent  translation  in  German  by  Gold- 
schmidt; a  translation  of  the  Mishnah  by  Hofifman  and 
Baneth,  and  an  English  translation  with  a  good  intro- 
duction and  short  "History  of  the  Talmud"  by  Michael 
L.  Rodkinson  (20  vols.). 

While  the  German  translation  is  much  more 
minutely  critical  than  the  English  and  also  more  com- 
plete, Mr.  Rodkinson  having  used  the  ordinarily  ac- 
cepted text  and  having  also  omitted  many  phrases  and 
sections  which  he  believed  to  be  interpolations  or  un- 
necessary,^^ yet  for  our  purpose  the  latter  is  entirely 
sufficient  to  give  a  vivid  and  novel  impression  of  the 

"  It  should  always  be  remembered  that  the  Talmud,  like  the  Bible,  was 
a  book  of  religion.  Almost  every  item  tabulated  by  Dr.  Samuel  Krauss,  in 
his  immense  Talmndische  Archdologie  (1910),  concerning  food,  dress, 
care  of  body,  games,  festivities,  schools,  family  life,  burial,  etc.,  might  be 
put  under  a  religious  sub-heading.  It  was  in  no  true  sense  a  book  of 
history,  biography,  or  science. 

^*  Compare  especially  the  wise  remarks  of  Dr.  Hermann  L.  Strack, 
Einleitung  in  den  Talmud,  Leipzig,  1908,  p.  vi. 

"  See  Goldschmidt's  criticism,  op.  cit.,  p.  xvi. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      627 

Jewish  religious  teaching  in  the  apostoHc  age.  The 
fact  that  Mr.  Rodkinson  is  an  orthodox  Jew  opposed 
to  Christianity,  who  finds  fault  even  with  the  Golden 
Rule,  makes  it  perfectly  plain  that  his  translation  of 
the  Talmud  may  be  trusted  as  one  absolutely  fair  to 
Jewish  interests  and  therefore  of  particular  apologetic 
value  to  the  Christian.  The  light  which  this  new  trans- 
lation throws  upon  the  times  of  Jesus  and  the  centuries 
which  immediately  follow  is  impressive,  as  also  its  con- 
firmation of  the  New  Testament. 

It  tells  many  curious  things  about  the  Temple  and 
the  priestly  ritual,  asks  and  attempts  to  answer  many 
questions  which  to  us  seem  foolish,  e.g.,  "Why  has  an 
ox  a  long  tail?"  "Why  has  an  ass  a  short  tail?"  "What 
is  the  reason  that  the  lower  eyelids  of  a  hen  turn  up?" 
It  has  much  to  say  of  the  ceremonial  purification  before 
each  meal;  the  kind  and  amount  of  water  that  must 
be  used;  which  hand  must  be  put  first  in  the  basin; 
the  place  to  put  the  napkin,  etc.  There  is  much  said 
also  concerning  unleavened  bread ;  how  the  dough  must 
be  kneaded ;  how  it  must  be  baked,  etc. 

But  perhaps  to  the  New  Testament  student  nothing 
else  is  more  interesting  than  the  Talmudic  instructions 
in  regard  to  keeping  the  Sabbath.  Here  are  prescriptions 
as  to  what  oil  and  wicks  may  be  used  in  the  lamps  on  the 
Sabbath  day;  whether  a  light  may  be  extinguished  for 
fear  of  accident  or  to  afford  rest  for  the  sick ;  whether  a 
chair  may  be  dragged  across  the  floor ;  whether  victuals 
left  in  the  oven,  having  been  forgotten  and  therefore 
cooked  on  the  Sabbath,  ought  to  be  eaten;  how  long 
steps  one  can  take  when  he  goes  out  for  his  Sabbath 
walk;  may  a  man  with  a  wooden  leg  go  out  at  all? 
Would  he  not  be  "carrying  his  burden  with  him?"     Is 


628     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

it  permissible  to  pare  the  finger-nails  or  to  make  beds 
or  tie  knots  or  to  bathe  a  sore  hand  in  vinegar  on  the 
Sabbath  day  ?  Is  it  wrong  to  rend  one's  garments  when 
he  hears  of  the  death  of  a  relative  on  the  Sabbath;  or 
to  close  the  door  on  an  evil  animal  that  tries  to  get 
into  the  house?  How  should  bread  be  cut  and  is  it 
lawful  to  cover  a  pot  on  the  Sabbath,  or  to  cover  a 
chest  with  a  goatskin  to  keep  it  from  burning?  What 
assistance  (if  any)  may  be  given  a  woman  about  to 
give  birth  to  a  child  on  the  Sabbath,  and  what  may  be 
done  in  the  event  of  an  animal  falling  into  the  water? 
Is  it  allowable  to  close  the  eyes  of  the  dead  or  to  move 
a  corpse  to  save  it  from  the  fire?  Is  one  allowed  to 
take  a  bath  on  the  Sabbath  day  or  only  to  wash  each 
limb  separately?  Is  it  lawful  to  use  soap  on  the  Sab- 
bath?   May  one  warm  himself  by  a  hearth  fire? 

Various  answers  were  given  by  different  rabbis  to 
these  questions;  but  there  seems  to  have  been  a  general 
agreement  that  no  tailor  was  allowed  to  go  out  with 
his  tools  even  on  Friday  evening;  nor  should  one  so 
late  in  the  week  sell  anything  to  a  Gentile  or  lend  him 
money.  No  Jew  could  heat  water  on  the  Sabbath,  altho 
a  Gentile  cook  was  allowed  to  do  this  for  him. 

A  woman  could  wear  a  small  golden  hairpin,  but 
could  not  go  out  with  a  seal  ring  on  or  carry  a  perfume 
bottle  or  a  key  without  being  liable  to  a  sin  offering; 
as  for  the  false  tooth  of  metal  or  of  gold,  some  rabbis 
allowed  it,  but  the  sages  generally  forbade  the  gold 
tooth  or  filling,  tho  a  silver  tooth  was  generally  per- 
mitted. Amulets  were  usually  permitted,  one  cele- 
brated rabbi  stating  explicitly  that  one  could  carry  with 
him  on  Sabbath  "eggs  of  grasshoppers"  (a  remedy 
for  toothache),  "the  tooth  of  a  fox"  (to  cure  sleepless- 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      629 

ness),  or  "a  nail  from  a  gallows"  (remedy  for  tumor). 

When  one  reads  these  voluminous  questions  and 
answers  he  gets  a  new  view  of  the  freedom  of  Jesus 
and  of  the  novelty  of  his  new  doctrine  concerning  the 
Sabbath  day. 

Some  of  the  answers  are  as  strange  as  the  ques- 
tions. You  may  not  chop  ice  on  the  Sabbath,  but  you 
may  put  chopped  ice  into  a  pitcher;  a  woman  can  wear 
hairpins,  since  these  are  ornaments,  not  burdens;  but 
a  man  can  not  wear  iron-riveted  sandals  unless  his  foot 
is  sore;  an  Israelite  can  not  light  a  lamp  on  the  Sab- 
bath, but  he  can  use  it  after  a  non-Israelite  has  lighted 
it.  Non-Israelite  nurses  may  be  procured  for  the  sick. 
If  an  animal  fall  into  a  cistern  or  lake,  an  Israelite  must 
not  pull  it  out,  but  he  can  push  something  in  for  it  to 
climb  out  upon. 

Some  interesting  things  may  be  noticed  concerning 
the  relations  existing  between  the  Jews  and  the  Gen- 
tiles : 

"If  an  Israelite  says  grace,  say  Amen  to  it;  but  if  a  Gentile 
says  grace,  be  careful.  (He  may  be  attempting  to  cause  you  to 
blaspheme.)  If  a  Gentile  shaves  you,  keep  your  eye  on  the 
mirror." 

Who  are  meant  by  "the  idiots"  is  asked,  and  the 
answer  is,  "The  Samaritans." 

In  the  midst  of  these  narrow  and  foolish  words 
there  are  some  beautiful  ethical  statements  that  throw  a 
new  light  upon  the  religious  sentiments  of  non-Chris- 
tian Jews.    We  quote  a  few  notable  sentences : 

"He  who  raises  his  hand  to  strike  his  neighbor  is  already  con- 
sidered wicked  even  before  he  has  smitten  him." 

"The  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  loved  (Dcut.  6:4)  through 
thy  treatment  of  thy  fellow  man." 

"Do  God's  will  as  thy  own  will,  submit  thy  will  to  his  will." 


630    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

"Do  God's  will  as  if  it  were  thine  own,  that  he  may  do  thy  will 
as  if  it  were  his." 

"Be  not  like  servants  who  serve  their  master  for  the  sake  of 
reward." 

"Thy  neighbor's  honor  must  be  as  dear  to  thee  as  thy  own." 

"Keep  aloof  from  grumbling." 

"Do  not  hate  the  one  who  reproves  thee." 

"Be  afraid  of  a  light  sin." 

"If  you  humble  yourself  the  Lord  will  lift  you  up." 

"Everything  i?  foreordained  by  heaven  except  the  fear  of 
heaven." 

"What  is  hateful  to  thee  do  not  to  thy  neighbor;  that  is  the 
law.    All  else  is  but  commentary." 

"Pass  not  judgment  upon  thy  neighbor,  until  thou  hast  put 
thyself  in  his  place." 

"One  who  is  tipsy  can  not  pray;  he  is  blaspheming." 

"For  him  who  says,  I  will  sin  and  the  Day  of  Atonement  will 
atone  for  my  sin ;  the  Day  of  Atonement  does  not  atone." 

There  are  also  many  good  words  concerning  the 
certainty  of  the  future  Hfe  and  the  happiness  of  the 
righteous  and  the  duty  of  taking  care  of  the  poor.  One 
rabbi  said  as  his  last  word:  "Make  my  funeral  sermon 
impressive,  for  I  shall  be  present." 

The  first  question  asked  of  a  man  by  the  divine 
Judge  is,  "Hast  thou  traded  in  good  faith?" 

In  the  tract  on  idolatry  occurs  also  this  striking 
statement:  "He  who  occupies  himself  with  the  Torah 
(Law)  but  does  not  observe  bestowing  of  favors,  is 
similar  to  him  who  denies  God." 

It  is  distinctly  taught  that  the  "appointed  times" 
for  the  appearance  of  the  Messiah  have  already  ceased, 
and  that  repentance  and  good  deeds  are  essential. 

One  striking  statement  is,  "The  measure  with  which 
man  measures  will  be  measured  out  to  him."  ^* 

"  Many  more  gems  could  be  given,  gathered  from  the  works  of  men 
who  have  spent  years  in  the  study  of  the  Talmud ;  but  the  writer  has  pre- 
ferred to  give  those  which  struck  him  most  as  he  read  the  translation 
referred  to. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      631 

Jesus  is  often  mentioned  in  the  Talmud.  The  refer- 
ences have  been  shown  in  detail  by  many  scholars,  and 
the  fact  is  acknowledged  by  Mr.  Rodkinson,  tho  he 
does  not  translate  these  passages  (XIX:  106).  He  is 
never  mentioned  by  name  excepting  perhaps  once  or 
twice,  e.g.,  where  he  is  said  to  have  been  an  idolator 
who  worshiped  a  brickbat  {Sank.,  107B);  but  he  is 
called  "'that  man"  or  "Son  of  Stada"  or  "Son  of 
Pandera,"  "dead  dog,"  and  "the  hanged  one"  and  "the 
sorcerer,"  "Balaam"  and  "Seducer."  His  mother  also 
is  mentioned  with  bitterness;  "the  hinge  of  hell's  gate 
fastened  in  her  ear."  ^^ 

There  is  one  instance  where  it  is  related  that  a 
rabbi  hearing  that  a  relative  sick  unto  death  was  about 
to  be  cured  by  the  name  of  Jesus,  hoped  that  the  sick 
man  would  die  before  healing  could  come  to  him.  The 
wonderful  works  of  Jesus  were  not  denied,  but  it  was 
said  he  had  learned  sorcery  in  Egypt.  The  gospel  is 
referred  to  not  as  an  evangel  or  good  news  but  as  an 
avengil  ("blank  paper").  Several  of  the  disciples  are 
mentioned  by  name,  and  the  death  of  Jesus  by  cruci- 
fixion at  the  time  of  the  Feast  of  the  Passover  is  re- 
ferred to.^® 

The  trial  of  Jesus  is  illuminated  by  a  study  of  the 
Talmud.  The  tract  entitled  "Sanhedrin"  gives  the  en- 
tire procedure  necessary  to  a  legal  Jewish  trial  on  a 

^  The  Jemsh  Encyclopedia  tabulates  the  places  where  Jesus  is  men- 
tioned in  the  Talmud,  saying  that  it  is  a  mere  "subterfuge"  to  attempt  to 
escape  these  references  as  applying  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  It  says  the 
Talmud  specifies  his  healing  the  halt,  blind,  and  leprous,  and  mentions 
his  walking  on  the  sea.  Laible  in  Christus  im  Talmud  (Eng.  transl.,  1893) 
also  gives  a  full  list  of  the  references  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  while  J.  Rendel 
Harris  {Expositor,  London,  5th  series,  II :  193)  explains  certain  obscure 
anagrams  so  that  Pandera  becomes  equal  to  the  Greek  parthenos  (vir- 
gin), etc. 

^  See  Dalman,  Jesus  Christ  in  the  Talmud. 


632     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

capital  offense.  Many  writers  have  tabulated  the 
illegalities  connected  with  the  trial  of  Jesus  and  there- 
fore we  shall  pass  that.^^  But  no  one  can  read  this  tract 
without  being  struck  with  the  care  the  Jewish  law  took 
to  protect  an  innocent  man  from  unjust  conviction. 
Every  member  of  the  Sanhedrin  was  pledged  to  im- 
partiality and  kindness  of  thought.  There  must  be  a 
distinct  majority  of  two  in  favor  of  conviction,  and  the 
vote  for  conviction  must  be  repeated  the  next  day  in 
order  to  be  effective.  If  the  vote  of  condemnation  was 
unanimous,  the  accused  went  free,  this  being  taken  as 
a  proof  of  personal  enmity.  Gamblers,  usurers,  tax- 
gatherers  and  government  contractors  were  disqualified 
as  witnesses.  A  herald  must  go  before  the  convicted 
one  proclaiming  his  name,  the  charges  upon  which  he 
was  condemned,  and  crying  aloud  that  any  one  who 
knew  anything  in  his  defense  should  speak  it  out  at 
once.  The  procession  to  the  place  of  execution  had  to 
stop  at  least  twice  to  give  opportunity  for  such  late 
testimony,  and  if  it  were  offered  the  trial  must  be  taken 
up  de  novo. 

There  were  only  four  kinds  of  capital  punishment 
known  to  Jewish  law :  decapitation,  burning,  strangling, 
and  stoning.  Decapitation,  which  was  the  most  com- 
mon method  of  execution  by  the  Romans,  was  reserved 
for  murderers,  rebels,  etc.  Burning  was  the  penalty 
for  gross  sexual  crimes,  the  penalty  originally  being 
carried  out  by  pouring  melted  lead  down  the  throat,  but 
later  a  lighted  string  was  used  after  the  man  had  been 
partially   or    wholly    strangled.      Strangling    was    the 

"The  trial  by  night  on  the  eve  of  a  great  festival;  in  a  private  house 
instead  of  the  hall  Gazith,  the  conviction  occurring  on  the  same  day  as 
the  trial ;  etc.,  etc. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      633 

penalty  for  adultery,  striking  a  parent,  stealing  a  living 
soul  of  Israel,  giving  a  false  prophecy,  prophesying  in 
the  name  of  an  idol.  The  criminal  was  choked  by  a 
twisted  scarf  which  was  wound  around  his  neck.  Ston- 
ing was  the  penalty  for  blasphemy,  and  the  method  of 
administering  the  penalty  was  minutely  prescribed. 

It  is  a  singular  and  suggestive  fact  that  in  this 
greatest  trial  in  the  history  of  jurisprudence  the  sup- 
posed criminal  did  not  suffer  the  penalty  of  the  crime 
of  which  he  had  been  convicted;  but  was  punished  by 
a  foreign  power  by  a  penalty  unknown  to  the  laws  of 
his  own  land.  Crucifixion  was  a  penalty  unknown  to 
Jewish  law,  as  the  Talmud  witnesses.  It  was  used  by 
the  Romans  for  piracy,  highway  robbery,  assassination, 
forgery,  false  testimony,  high  treason  and  rebellion,  as 
also  for  slaves  who  had  murdered  their  master;  but  it 
was  never  prescribed  by  a  Jewish  court.  Yet  modern 
criticism  is  sure  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  had  the  cross 
as  its  central  theme. 

The  papyri  have  given  us  some  important  new 
knowledge  concerning  the  trial  of  Jesus.  These  prove 
that  the  legal  procedure  of  the  Roman  government  in 
criminal  cases  differed  in  the  provinces  from  what  was 
universal  in  Italy.  In  the  provinces  a  preliminary  hear- 
ing by  the  local  authorities — exactly  corresponding  to 
the  action  of  the  Sanhedrin — was  customary,  after 
which  the  case  was  handed  over  to  the  prefect  for 
formal  trial.  Richard  Wellington  Husband,  after  a 
very  thorough  study  of  all  the  data  involved,  is  able  to 
find  in  the  New  Testament  narratives  of  the  trial  a 
strong  new  proof  of  their  extraordinary  fidelity  to  fact. 
He  says :  "The  course  of  trial  in  the  Roman  court  .  .  . 
harmonized  with  the  procedure  shown  in  the  sources  to 


634     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

be  that  pursued  by  governors  of  provinces  in  hearing 
criminal  cases."  ^^ 

We  might  add  as  another  curious  confirmation  of 
the  New  Testament  narrative — a  fact  omitted  by  Mr. 
Husband — the  newly  discovered  decision  of  an 
Egyptian  governor,  a.d.  85,  in  the  case  of  Phebion,  in 
which  he  renders  his  sentence  in  a  way  to  strikingly 
remind  us  of  Pilate:  "Thou  hadst  been  worthy  of 
scourging   .    .    .   but  I  will  give  thee  to  the  people."^'' 

Pirke  Aboth. — Altho  this  is  the  most  celebrated  part 
of  the  Mishna  as  we  have  it  to-day,  it  is  a  chapter  which 
we  can  not  be  sure  was  originally  in  the  Babylonian 
Talmud.^"  It  was  written  by  many  authors  30  b.c.-a.d. 
300.  It  is  to-day  the  authorized  Prayer  Book  of  the 
orthodox  Jewish  Church  and  many  of  its  mottos  are 
well  worth  remembering  by  all: 

"All  my  days  I  have  grown  up  among  the  wise  and  I  have  not 
found  anything  better  than  silence;  not  study  is  the  chief  thing, 
but  action,  and  whoso  makes  many  words  occasions  sin."   .    .    . 

"Talk  not  much  with  thy  wife.  ...  So  long  as  the  man 
talks  much  with  the  wife  he  causes  evil  to  himself  and  desists 
from  words  of  Torah  and  his  end  is  that  he  inherits  Gehen- 
nah."   .    .    . 

"A  rude  man  fears  not  sin,  and  no  vulgar  person  is  pious  .  .  . 
not  he  that  hath  much  business  becomes  wise.  In  a  place  where 
there  are  no  men  strive  to  be  a  man"  (R.  Hillel).  "Be  not  easily 
wroth,  and  repent  one  day  before  thy  death"  (R.  Eleazar).  "Let 
the  wealth  of  thy  associate  be  dear  to  thee  as  thine  own"  (R. 
Jose).  "The  day  is  short,  and  the  work  is  great,  and  the  laborers 

^  The  Prosecution  of  Jesus,  1916,  pp.  281-2.  Mr.  Husband  gives  a 
complete  bibliography  of  works  on  the  Trial  of  Jesus,  pp.  283-295.  From 
astronomical  data  fixing  the  full  moon  each  year  from  a.d.  27  to  a.d.  33,  he 
concludes  that  the  crucifixion  occurred  April  3,  a.d.  33,  since  only  in  that 
year  did  the  Passover  supper  (fourteenth  of  Nisan)  come  on  a  Friday. 
He  decides  that  the  charge  against  Jesus  was  treason — treason  in  Roman 
law  meaning  anything  done  "inimical  to  the  welfare  of  the  Roman  people." 

^'Deissmann,  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  p.  267. 

'"H.  L.  Strack,  Pirqe  Aboth  (1915),  p.  424. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      635 

few,  and  the  hire  is  much,  and  the  master  of  the  house  is  urgent" 
(R.  Tarhon).  "When  ten  are  seated  and  occupied  with  Torah, 
the  Shechinah  is  among  them"  (R.  Halaphta).  "Every  one  whose 
wisdom  is  more  than  his  deeds,  his  wisdom  does  not  endure"  (R. 
Heinena),  "Every  one  whose  wisdom  is  greater  than  his  deeds 
to  what  is  he  hke?  To  a  tree  whose  branches  are  many  and 
whose  roots  are  few;  and  the  wind  comes  and  roots  it  up"  (R. 
Eleazar).  "At  five  years  old  one  is  fit  for  scripture,  at  ten  for 
Mishna,  at  thirteen  for  the  commandments,  at  fifteen  for  the 
Talmud,  at  eighteen  for  marriage,  at  twenty  for  retribution,  at 
thirty  for  power,  at  forty  for  discernment,  at  fifty  for  council, 
at  sixty  for  elderhood,  at  seventy  for  gray  hairs,  at  eighty  for 
strength,  at  ninety  for  decrepitude"  (R.  Judah). 

Other  rabbis  offer  wise  sayings  from  which  we 
select  the  following: 

"There  are  four  types  of  men :  (i)  He  that  says  what  is  mine 
is  mine,  and  what  is  thine  is  thine.  This  is  the  average  type ;  some 
say  it  is  the  type  of  Sodom.  (2)  What  is  mine  is  thine,  and  what 
is  thine  is  mine.  This  is  the  word  of  the  vulgar.  (3)  What  is 
mine  and  what  is  thine  are  thine.  He  is  pious.  (4)  What  is  thine 
and  what  is  mine  are  mine.    He  is  wicked." 

"There  are  four  types  of  men  who  sit  before  the  wise:  a 
sponge,  a  funnel,  a  strainer,  and  a  sieve.  A  sponge,  because  it 
sucks  up  everything ;  a  funnel,  because  it  receives  at  one  end  and 
lets  out  at  the  other ;  a  strainer,  because  it  lets  out  the  wine  and 
keeps  back  the  dregs ;  a  sieve,  because  it  lets  out  the  coarse  meal 
and  keeps  back  the  fine  flour." 

"Great  is  Torah  because  it  gives  them  that  practise  it  life  in 
this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come." 

5.  Intellectual,    Social,   and   Religious   Life   of 

THE  First  and  Adjoining  Centuries 

AS  Seen  in  the  Papyri,  etc. 

The  early  Christian  centuries  were  creative.  The 
whole  civilized  earth  throbbed  with  a  sudden  liberated 
energy.  It  seemed  as  if  a  new  intellectual  dynamic  had 
been  injected  into  the  blood  of  the  race.     Pioneers  of 


636    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

science  like  Strabo  were  inventing  geological  theories 
which  strangely  resemble  those  of  modern  times; 
scholars  like  Tacitus  and  Livy  were  writing  histories 
of  such  elegance  and  philosophic  insight  that  they  are 
yet  classics  of  their  kind;  educators  like  Quintilian 
were  originating  methods  of  pedagogy  which  are 
only  now  in  the  twentieth  century  being  carried  into 
effect. 

The  astronomers  in  Alexandria  were  calculating 
eclipses,  determining  the  equinoctial  points,  solstices, 
etc.,  much  as  is  done  to-day,  and  were  reaching  de- 
cisions concerning  the  size  of  the  earth  and  the  moon 
and  the  distance  of  the  earth  from  the  sun  which  were 
not  far  removed  from  those  obtained  by  modern 
scholars.  The  sphericity  of  the  earth  was  taught  and 
illustrated  in  the  schools,  as  we  know  from  a  fresco  on 
which  a  terrestrial  globe  is  represented,  recently  found 
in  Rome.  Nero  had  a  pipe-organ  worked  by  machinery, 
a  circular  dining-room  which  revolved  like  an  astro- 
nomical dome  with  the  sun,  and  a  bronze  hydraulic 
engine — found  only  recently  in  the  ruins  of  his  palace; 
and  Dr.  Boni  has  just  discovered  an  elevator  120  feet 
high  connected  with  the  emperor's  palace.^* 

The  inventions  of  the  mechanical  engineers  of  that 
era  have  been  famous  ever  since,  and  it  is  plain  that 
they  had  been  struggling  somewhat  successfully  to 
master  the  problems  connected  with  the  power  of  sun- 
light and  of  confined  steam  which  have  been  solved 
only  within  the  last  century.  Hero  of  Alexandria  is 
said  to  have  constructed  during  the  apostolic  age  the 

*^  Journal  of  Roman  Studies,  IV:  251.  Some  scholars  believe  this  was 
a  latrone  rather  than  an  elevator,  but  the  probabiHty  is  that  the  distin- 
guished Italian  excavator  was  right  in  his  decision. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      637 

first  hydraulic  engine  and  the  earhest  penny  in  the  slot 
machine.  The  gage  of  our  modern  railroad  tracks  is 
almost  in  exact  conformity  to  the  wheel  tracks  of  the 
Roman  chariot,  while  the  Director  of  Public  Roads  in 
the  United  States  has  lately  declared  that  if  modern 
road  builders  were  to  reproduce  a  highway  like  the 
Appian  Way,  it  would  cost  over  $50,000  a  mile. 

Even  in  medicine  something  was  done.  While  there 
was  usually  much  magic  mixed  up  with  ancient  medi- 
cine, it  is  suggestive  that  Hippocrates  admitted  no 
superstition  into  his  practise;  that  he  correctly  made 
hygiene  the  proper  basis  of  medicine;  that  he  discust 
the  quality  of  the  water  supply;  and  that  he  set  down 
critical  records  of  cases  of  fever — typhus,  puerperal, 
malarial,  and  the  like.®^ 

Many  remains  of  fine  surgical  instruments  have  long 
been  known  to  archeologists.  The  medical  profession 
was  divided  into  many  branches,  in  each  of  which 
specialists  were  doing  a  good  business.  An  oculist's 
seal  of  the  first  century,  recently  found  at  Este,  gives 
the  specialist's  name;  the  seal  is  so  cleverly  con- 
structed that  four  different  remedies  can  be  marked 
with  it.  In  a  papyrus,  dating  a.d.  i,  a  man  puts  in  an 
order  for  drugs,  with  the  very  modern  postscript:  "No 
stale  stuff  accepted!"  In  another  papyrus  of  the  third 
century  mention  is  made  of  "medicated  lozenges"; 
in  one  of  the  second  century  a  prescription  for  sore 
eyes  and  a  recipe  for  tooth  powder  are  given;  while  a 
fragment  now  in  the  British  Museum  almost  certainly 
represents  an  ancient  work  on  dentistry. 

Music  was  one  of  the  common  accomplishments  of 
the  first  century.     Some  of  the  best  poems  ever  written 

^-  Mahaffy,  op.  cit.,  179. 


6^.8     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 


'o 


date  from  this  era,  and  Statius  (a.d.  45-96)  even  wrote 
memorial  elegiac  verses  in  honor  of  his  parrot! 

We  have  already  mentioned  Nero's  pipe-organ,  pic- 
tured on  a  monument,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
he  was  conducting  a  cantata  in  the  Music  Hall  of 
Naples  when  the  great  earthquake  interrupted  the  per- 
formance (a.d.  63). 

That  the  Jews  were  a  music-loving  people  is  shown 
not  only  by  the  poetry  in  the  gospels,  but  also  by  the 
many  fine  specimens  in  uncanonical  gospels  (for  ex- 
ample in  the  newly  studied  Protevangelium  of  Jacob), 
where  some  good  specimens  of  true  poetry  are  recorded. 

One  piece  of  music  dating  as  early  as  the  fifth  cen- 
tury before  Christ  has  been  made  known  to  us  through 
a  papyrus — the  Orestes  of  Euripides,  the  first  Greek 
writer  who  set  his  poetry  to  popular  tunes; — and 
Wessely  in  1889  had  the  good  fortune  to  decipher  the 
ancient  system  by  which  such  tunes  were  recorded,  so 
that  we  now  possess  the  musical  notes  to  several 
ancient  pieces  of  music.  These  ancient  tunes — with 
which  our  Lord  may  have  been  familiar — very  much 
resemble  the  older  Arabic  and  Hebrew  melodies,  being 
written  in  a  key  which  is  not  naturally  appreciated  by 
Europeans.  We  make  a  difference  between  majors  and 
minors;  but  the  Greeks  had  eleven  scales  and  had 
quarter  as  well  as  half  tones  in  their  music.^^ 

While  Suetonius  tells  us  that  among  the  Romans 
teaching,  as  a  profession,  was  despised  so  that  a  pan- 
tomime actor  or  boxer  might  turn  teacher,  yet  we  also 
remember  that,  occasionally  at  least,  a  Roman  knight 

•^  See  Carl  Wessely,  Aus  der  Welt  der  Papyri,  pp.  53-57;  for  the  instru- 
mental music  of  the  Roman  Era  see  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies, 
XXIII  :160#;  and  for  ancient  Hebrew  music  see,  Jewish  Encyclopedia, 
passim. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      639 

entered  this  position;  and  Persius   (a.d.  34-62)   writes 
to  his  teacher: 

"It  is  my  joy  to  show,  O  sweet  my  friend, 
To  you,  how  a  large  part  of  me  is  yours." 

There  were  twenty  flourishing  grammar  schools  at 
Rome  W'hen  St.  Paul  visited  the  city,  and  for  over  a 
hundred  years  girls  as  well  as  boys  had  been  allowed 
the  privileges  of  the  schools.  In  many  lands  women 
had  become  fascinated  with  Greek  studies,  and  oc- 
casionally they  were  employed  as  professors  in  the 
grammar  schools.  Dr.  Petrie  in  1889  found  at  Hawara, 
under  the  head  of  a  learned  woman,  a  fine  copy  of  the 
second  book  of  Homer's  Iliad,  thumb-marked  by  care- 
ful study  and  with  various  critical  readings  marked  in 
the  margin. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  Pliny  the  elder  quotes  a 
woman  author  among  the  two  thousand  authorities 
mentioned  in  his  celebrated  "Natural  History" ;  and  the 
wife  of  Pliny  the  younger  set  his  poems  to  music.  Even 
Martial  ranks  culture  as  one  of  woman's  charms,  tho 
Juvenal  condemns  a  blue  stocking  as  hotly  as  he  does 
the  wife  who  delivers  curtain  lectures  to  her  lord  or 
elopes  with  a  gladiator. 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that  the  larger 
part  of  cultured  society  agreed  with  Juvenal  in  that 
judgment.  The  women  were  supposed  to  be  the  eaves- 
droppers and  gossips  of  the  world: 

"They  know  what  Juno  chatted  of  with  Jove. 
What  never  was  or  is — they  know  it,  though !" 

Menander  was  quite  in  fashion  when  he  wrote  that 
to  marry  was  "taking  arms  with  no  good  reason  against 
a  sea  of  troubles";  for  while  three  out  of  every  thirty 


640     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ships  that  went  to  sea  were  wrecked,  "scarcely  one  poor 
husband  escaped."    Another  poet  wails: 

"O,  wretched  are  we,  husbands  who  have  sold 
All  liberty  of  life,  all  luxury, 
And  live  as  slaves  of  women,  not  as  freemen." 

In  view  of  this,  it  is  not  surprizing  that  all  the 
papyri  which  have  to  do  with  the  schools  speak  only 
of  the  boys  and  do  not  mention  the  girls.  While 
women  of  the  upper  class  might  sometimes  be  well 
educated,  the  common  working  girls  had  not  the  slight- 
est opportunity  for  education.  And  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  it  is  almost  exclusively  the  working  people 
who  have  left  to  us  these  papyrus  letters.  Most  of 
these  poor  people  seem  to  have  had  little  difficulty  in 
getting  papyrus  or  in  using  it  after  it  was  obtained, 
altho  one  ^oor  man  of  the  third  century  writes: 

"Do  please  send  me  some  unwritten  papyrus  that  I  may  be 
able  to  write  you." 

A  boy  (third  century)  writes  to  his  father:  "Do 
not  be  anxious  about  my  mathematics;  I  am  indus- 
trious"; and  a  most  interesting  letter  (second  century 
before  Christ),  that  of  a  mother  to  her  student  son, 
has  been  preserved  in  which  she  congratulates  him  on 
having  completed  his  education,  saying,  "You  will  have 
now  a  maintenance  for  your  old  age" ;  while  in  another 
letter  a  boy's  father  expresses  regret  because  his 
teacher  {hihdoxaXo(;)  had  left  him,  but  gladness  be- 
cause his  trusty  old  servant  (jiaiSaycoYog)  was  with 
him  and  would  take  him  to  find  another  worthy  in- 
structor (cf.  Gal.  3:24). 

The  British  Museum  possesses  many  school  exer- 


•^    a 


s    :~  i< 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      641 

cises  coming  from  the  second  century,  which  still  show 
the  hard  usage  they  received  from  their  ancient  owners. 
Some  of  these  contain  the  alphabet,  the  order  of  letters 
being  imprest  by  a  catalog  of  familiar  names.  Then 
there  are  syllable  lists,  each  letter  being  combined  with 
different  vowels;  then  there  are  lists  of  polysyllables. 
There  are  various  copy-books  in  which  the  same 
epigram  or  sentence  is  copied  six  or  seven  times.  Two 
very  fine  grammatical  tablets  of  wood  about  as  large 
as  the  modern  American  slate  and  also  a  wooden  school 
book  of  eight  tablets  containing  verbal  declensions  have 
recently  come  to  light,  as  well  as  a  trilingual  "Conver- 
sation Book." 

In  one  of  the  school  exercises  the  student  has 
written  at  the  end: 

"Good  luck  to  the  writer !''  «* 

Practically  all  the  letters  and  most  of  the  school 
exercises  are  written  in  Greek,  Latin,  however,  was 
also  widely  used.  Indeed,  colloquial  Latin  was  prob- 
ably almost  as  widely  used,  geographically  speaking,  as 
colloquial  Greek.  While  in  India  only  a  hundred .  in 
every  ten  thousand  can  read  and  write  English — tho 
this  country  has  been  occupied  by  the  English  for  150 
years, — yet  Latin,  which  in  400  b.c.  was  spoken  in  a  dis- 
trict of  less  than  a  hundred  square  miles,  had  expanded 
until  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  it  had  over- 
spread all  countries  almost  as  completely  as  the  Roman 
arms.    Not  only  in  Italy  but  in  most  of  the  provinces  all 

"We  do  not  know  much  about  the  prizes  offered  for  excellence  in 
study  and  contests  of  endurance,  but  the  sickles  received  in  Sparta  by- 
boys  from  ten  to  thirteen  years  of  age  who  were  victors  in  athletics 
and  contests  of  endurance,  have  come  down  to  us,  these  having  been  dedi- 
cated as  votive  offerings.  Xenodes  and  Lochares  were  each  three  times 
victors.     (Jottr.  of  Brit.  School  at  Athens,  1905-6,  p.  314;  1908-9,  p.  45.) 


642     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

government  business,  all  military,  legal,  and  large 
monetary  affairs  were  conducted  in  Latin;  all  imperial 
proclamations  and  formal  addresses  were  in  Latin. 
Even  Constantine,  when  he  presided  at  the  Council  of 
Nicsea,  addrest  the  assembly  in  Latin,  and  the  Emperor 
Claudius  cancelled  the  Roman  citizenship  of  a  Greek 
because  he  had  proved  himself  unable  to  write  in  crood 
Latin.'' 

Not  only  Paul  and  every  other  Roman  citizen  would, 
of  necessity,  understand  this  language,  but  as  native 
Roman  traders  and  soldiers  were  covering  Palestine, 
Syria,  and  Egypt  during  the  early  Christian  centuries, 
the  common  people  also  must  have  generally  had  some 
understanding  of  the  Roman  tongue — and  this  is  shown 
by  many  Latin  inscriptions  in  every  land,  tho  doubtless 
ordinary  domestic  correspondence  and  local  business 
were  commonly  carried  on  in  Greek.^*'  There  is  one 
letter,  however,  written  in  Latin  (21-18  B.C.),  which 
fortunately  comes  to  us  from  Egypt,  enabling  us  to  see 
exactly  how  the  original  manuscripts  of  Vergil  and 
Horace  looked.  Macedo  in  this  letter  is  told  by  a  friend 
of  some  scandal  reported  in  the  home  of  his  acquaint- 
ances Jucundus,  Dido,  and  Nireus;  but  far  more 
valuable  than  this  bit  of  local  gossip  is  the  appearance 
of  this  ancient  letter,  where  the  writing  shows  scarcely 
any  separation  of  words,  no  capital  letters,  and  no 
punctuation  marks.'^ 

But  we  must  not  overrate  the  importance   of  our 

°°For  many  other  illustrations  of  this  see  Abbott,  Common  People  of 
Ancient  Rome,  1911,  Chap.  1. 

^  M.  Seymour  de  Ricci  has  just  published  an  important  Latin  will,  almost 
certainly  written  for  an  Italian,  from  Egypt,  Ancient  Egypt,  1916,  p.  18. 

^For  many  examples  of  Roman  script  from  a.d.  55  to  a.d.  572,  see 
Wessely,  Aus  der  Welt  der  Papyri,  148^/",  and  references. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      643 

few  Latin  scripts.^^  Of  all  the  hundreds  of  letters 
written  from  one  end  of  the  Roman  world  to  the  other, 
only  a  very  few  were  ever  written  in  Latin.  Every- 
body was  writing;  but  everybody  was  writing  in  Greek. 

We  possess  several  bundles  of  official  letters  from  a 
military  prefect  and  other  officers  of  government  in 
Egypt;  a  large  package  of  personal  notes  from  a  keen 
old  farmer;  a  marriage  contract  in  which  the  amount 
of  the  bride's  adornment  is  given  and  the  statement 
that  if  she  shames  her  husband  she  shall  forfeit  all  she 
has  brought,  while  if  the  husband  brings  a  mistress 
into  the  house  he  shall  repay  the  dowry  and  add  to  it 
a  thousand  drachmas;  an  affectionate  letter  to  a  child 
containing  the  impressive  remark,  "Be  sure  the  reason 
why  I  and  the  rest  love  you  so  much  is  that  you  obey 
them  in  all  things";  a  letter  of  a  son  to  his  father  clos- 
ing, "Write  to  us  that  we  may  not  be  anxious  {cf.  Luke 
22:44).  Take  care  of  yourself  .  .  .  and  come  to  us 
in  good  health";  a  letter  of  a  wife  to  her  husband  who 
says  she  is  in  the  last  extremity,  "because  of  the  high 
price  of  corn,"  yet  complaining  that  he  has  "never  even 
thought  of  returning";  and  multitudes  more  of  the 
same  sort. 

The  papyri  show  us  the  home  life  of  the  common 
people  of  the  first  century  even  better  than  the  graMti 
of  Pompeii.  The  latter  were  scribblings  in  public  places, 
but  these  private  letters  and  business  documents  show 
the  hidden  thoughts  and  home  occupations  of  the 
people.     They  are  written  carelessly  and  impulsively, 

^  Dr.  Victor  Martin  of  Geneva,  in  a  private  letter,  kindly  warns  me 
that  "all  official  business  in  Egypt  was  conducted  in  Greek,  with  the  only 
exception  of  matters  concerning  the  army.  The  number  of  Latin  papyri 
compared  to  Greek  is  very  small  and  the  people  ignored  Latin,  and  the 
fact  that  best  proves  this  is  that  the  New  Testament  was  spread  over  the 
world  not  in  Latin  but  in  Greek." 


644     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

often  in  barbarous  grammar  and  without  literary 
charm,  but  they  open  out  to  us  the  social  and  religious 
conditions  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  as  could  be 
done  in  no  other  way.  Alciphron,  a  Greek  author  of 
the  second  century,  published  some  1,700  years  ago  a 
''A'lodel  Letter-writer,"  containing  a  hundred  or  more 
letters  supposed  to  be  written  by  fishermen,  country 
folk,  parasites,  and  courtezans.  It  is  interesting  read- 
ing; but  it  is  instructive  to  compare  his  artificially 
constructed  letters  with  those  we  are  about  to  read. 
Take,  e.g.,  the  description  supposed  to  be  written 
by  a  farmer  concerning  his  neighbor,  "smelling  of 
raisins  and  dust."  It  is  a  cleverly  formed  sentence, 
but  no  farmer  would  ever  have  written  it.  In  the 
papyri  we  see  how  farmers  really  write.  A  bundle  of 
fourteen  letters  has  come  down  to  us  from  an  old  man 
born  about  a.d.  14,  written  probably  to  his  nephew  in 
a  shaky  and  almost  illegible  hand,  telling  him  in  words 
very  badly  misspelled,  "I  blame  you  greatly  for  having 
lost  the  two  little  pigs,"  etc.,  and  intimating  very  posi- 
tively his  surprize  that  young  folks  are  such  poor 
farmers  nowadays  as  compared  with  the  time  when 
he  was  a  boy.®^ 

Among  these  scraps  of  ancient  papers  picked  up 
miscellaneously  from  many  collections  are  monthly  meat 
bills;  wedding  invitations;  a  marriage  contract  (a.d. 
200),  in  which  "a  white  striped  frock"  and  "a  white 
veil  with  purple  border"  and  several  pieces  of  jewelry 
are  mentioned  as  part  of  the  dowry;  the  watchman's 
contract,   pledging  himself   to   be   honest   and   not   let 

*'0n  the  model  letter  writer  see  H.  W.  Smyth,  Harvard  Essays  on 
Classical  Subjects,  1912,  Essay  III.  We  will  not  indicate  the  location  of 
the  papyri  quoted  excepting  in  extraordinary  cases,  as  they  are  gathered 
from  scores  of  collections. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      645 

thieves  enter  the  storeroom;  a  farce  and  mime  from 
the  second  century,  full  of  coarse  wit,  with  the  musical 
and  stage  directions  in  shorthand;  a  second  century- 
almanac,  containing  directions  too  gross  to  be  quoted; 
a  poll-tax  register  from  the  first  century;  a  legal  ac- 
cusation against  a  husband  affirming  that  he  had  "ap- 
plied fire  to  his  foster  daughters,  having  stript  them 
quite  naked";  salutations  in  a  private  letter  to  Theonis' 
children,  ''whom  the  evil  eye  shall  not  harm";  lease  of 
a  dining-room  (a.d.  173),  with  explicit  contract  that 
the  key  must  be  given  back  and  the  room  left  "free 
from  dirt  and  filth";  question  to  an  oracle  (first  cen- 
tury), "Shall  the  son  agree  with  his  father  or  not?"; 
other  questions  (second  century),  "Shall  the  slave  be 
bought  or  not!"  "Is  it  granted  to  me  to  marry?"  etc., 
etc. 

One  rather  comical  note  from  a  school  boy  urges 
that  his  teacher  be  fed  well,  so  that  he  may  be  better 
natured.  Some  very  modern  methods  of  primary  in- 
struction have  recently  been  brought  to  light,  as  for 
example  a  "Nursery  Acrostic"  (probably  first  century), 
in  which  the  loss  of  a  garment  is  told  in  short  lines  be- 
ginning with  successive  letters  of  the  alphabet: 

"Alion  it  was  who  took  it :  a  fool  who  lost  it,"  etc. 

The  ordinary  Christian  boy  at  this  early  era  seems 
to  have  been  able  at  least  to  read  and  write.  This 
may  seem  at  first  sight  a  small  accomplishment,  but 
will  appear  more  surprizing  when  we  remember  that 
not  a  single  letter  or  inscription  remains  from 
the  crusaders  who  marched  through  Asia  Minor 
(Ramsay). 

We  can  now  see  clearly  that  the  Christians  of  the 


646     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

first  three  or  four  centuries  encouraged  learning  and 
that  the  new  teaching  appealed  with  special  force  to 
educated  people,  tho  later  the  average  of  education  was 
lower.  The  commonplace  and  trifling  nature  of  the 
ordinary  correspondence  in  the  early  Christian  cen- 
turies is  sufficient  proof  of  the  common  and  easy  use 
of  the  pen  at  that  time.  Among  the  unpublished  docu- 
ments obtained  by  the  writer  in  Egypt  are  two  letters 
written  almost  entirely  about  a  hoe  which,  it  seems,  one 
of  the  parties  had  taken  and  the  other  thought  he  had 
not  returned.     Shenute  writes: 

"I  let  you  know  about  the  hoe  which  I  gave  them.  They  sent 
to  me  another  time  about  it  .  .  .  remember  so  they  do  not 
bother  me  about  it." 

Abraham  answers  this  note  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  parchment: 

"As  to  the  matter  of  the  hoe,  I  told  N that  I  received 

it,"  etc. 

It  may  seem,  however,  as  if  the  above  notes  may 
possibly  have  had  some  necessity  of  business  behind 
them  and  there  may  be  some  business  excuse  also  even 
for  the  list  of  donkey  boys  scrawled  on  an  ostracon 
(first  century),  and  an  excuse  equally  valid  for  the  love 
letter  of  the  second  century,  in  which  the  disappointed 
lover  sighs: 

"Ah  me !  You  have  left  me  alone  in  my  misery !" 

But  what  can  be  said  of  this  letter  (second  or  third 
century) ? 

"Having  spoken,  he  smote  three  times  and  laughed  seven 
times  Ha,  Ha,  Ha,  Ha,  Ha,  Ha,  Ha.  And  when  he  had  laughed, 
seven  gods  were  born !" 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      647 

It  not  only  shows  that  the  ancients  laughed  as  we 
do,  but  it  also  shows  that  they  wrote  easily  and  care- 
lessly as  we  do. 

The  ancient  sense  of  humor  is  also  quite  often  seen 
in  the  papyri,  and  even  occasionally  in  the  tomb  in- 
scriptions. In  one  will,  recorded  23  b.c.^  it  looks  as  if 
a  father  had  allowed  his  satiric  wrath  against  his  two 
sons,  presumably  prodigals,  to  follow  him  to  the  grave, 
for  he  wills  each  of  them  "a  bed" — as  if  that  were  all 
either  of  them  were  capable  of  using  to  good  ad- 
vantage.^" On  one  gravestone  appears  this  satiric  in- 
junction: ^'Lawyers  and  the  evil  eye,  keep  away  from 
my  tomb."  In  a  papyrus  letter  (second  or  third  century) 
a  man  sarcastically  writes:  "It  was  good  of  you,  you 
sent  me  a  gift,  such  a  beauty — just  weeds !"  Was  this 
a  young  man's  anger  aroused  at  receiving  an  unac- 
ceptable wedding  present?  In  a  memorandum  of  the 
first  century  Hirax  mentions  some  thirty-six  different 
items  that  he  must  not  forget,  marking  an  oblique 
stroke  in  the  margin  as  each  matter  is  attended  to. 
When  one  reads  among  other  items  that  he  must  not 
forget  to  *'get  a  license,"  to  go  to  "a  meeting,"  to  see 
Philona,  to  "get  some  leeks  and  sandals,"  etc.,  one  at 
first  might  imagine  that  this  was  the  private  domestic 
record  of  a  young  husband;  but  the  mention  of  an 
"aqueduct"  and  "wheel"  shows  that  this  was  a  business 
memorandum. 

How  very  modern  the  tone  of  the  following  letters : 
a  note  from  one  man  to  another  instructing  him  to  get 
a  better  file,  "one  that  would  file  iron,"  as  the  one  he 
had  brought  in  would  "file  only  wood" ;  a  medical 
papyrus  of  the  second  century  in  which  the  doctor  dis- 

"'  See  Wilcken,  Archiv  fur  Papyniskunde,  1 :  63. 


648    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

sents  from  the  ancient  dictum  that  ripe  fruit  was  harm- 
ful, saying  that  he  beheved  it  was  certainly  "good  for 
digestion";  a  complaint  made  by  an  "unpaid  policeman" 
concerning  a  priest,  who  struck  him  with  a  stick  and 
"tore  his  shirt";  a  will  made  by  Pekysis  in  Hadrian's 
reign  written  (as  usual  then  and  now)  "in  the  street" 
by  a  street  notary,  in  which  this  Egyptian  lawyer  starts 
out  with  the  declaration  that  the  testator  is  "sane  and 
of  sound  mind";  and  another  careful  legal  document 
in  which  a  firm  of  embalmers,  of  the  guild  of 
Cholchyt?e,  take  a  lien  on  certain  mummies — proving 
that  the  undertakers  of  that  era  were  prudently  guard- 
ing against  unpaid  bills! 

There  are  many  begging  letters  addrest  to  mem- 
bers of  the  clergy,  in  one  of  which  Paula,  a  widow,  is 
urged  for  charity  on  the  ground  that  "she  and  the 
children,  each  one  of  them,  have  pains  in  the  neck,  and 
I  know  that  thou  lovest  the  poor."  Pious  ejaculations 
are  very  frequent  in  these  begging  letters,  as  "The 
Lord   shall   bless   thee   and   thy  cattle.      Kindly   have 

pity." 

The  series  of  twenty-one  letters  which  Dr.  Deiss- 
mann  has  recently  given,  dating  from  the  early  cen- 
turies, illustrates  in  a  beautiful  way  the  correspondence 
between  the  New  Testament  writings  and  the  writings 
of  non-Christians  who  were  contemporaries  of  the 
apostles.^^  In  one  of  these,  which  was  written  on  a 
leaden  tablet  found  near  Athens,  the  man  writes  home 
saying,  "Send  me  some  covering  ...  as  plain  as  you 
have  and  not  broidered  with  fur"  {cf.  2  Tim.  4:  13). 
Another  from  a  broken  papyrus  tells  of  a  festival  that 
is  soon  to  come,  and  asks  Ptolemseus  to  send  quickly 

'''^  Light  from  the  Ancient  East,  pp.  148-217. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      649 

"the  piper  Petoys  with  the  Phrygian  pipes  and  the 
others"  and  "Zenobius  the  Malakon"  {cf.  i  Cor.  6:9), 
"with  tablet  and  cymbals  and  rattles;  for  the  women 
have  need  of  him  at  the  sacrifice.  .  .  .  And  send  us 
also  cheeses,  as  many  as  thou  canst,  and  new  earthen- 
ware and  herbs  of  every  kind,  and  delicacies  if  thou 
hast  any.  Farewell."  Another  private  letter  written 
on  a  potsherd  is  really  a  receipt  in  which  occurs  the 
formula,  "I  have  received  from  thee  the  fruit  that 
falleth  to  me"  {cf.  Luke  15:  12).  Still  another,  dated 
September  13,  a.d.  50,  is  a  papyrus  in  which  Mysterion 
says,  "I  have  sent  unto  you  my  Blastus  {cf.  i  Cor. 
4:  17  and  Acts  12:  20)  for  forked  sticks  for  my  olive 
garden  {cf.  Acts  i:  12).  .  .  .  See  then  that  thou 
stay  him  not  for  thou  knowest  how  I  need  him  every 
hour.    Farewell." 

In  another  letter  of  July  24,  a.d.  66,  a  farmer  swears 
that  he  has  had  only  seven  lambs  born  in  the  flock  since 
the  previous  enrolment;  this  is  autographed  with  the 
signature  of  an  official,  and  the  date  is  given  in  the 
handwriting  of  the  official:  "In  the  twelfth  year  of 
Lord  Nero" — exactly  the  same  title  of  deity  being  given 
to  the  Emperor  which  the  New  Testament  constantly 
gives  to  Jesus.  An  Egyptian  soldier  in  the  Roman 
army  writes  to  his  father  in  the  second  century  saying : 

"Many  greetings :  Before  all  things  I  pray  that  thou  art  in 
health,  and  that  thou  dost  prosper  and  fare  well  continually,  to- 
gether with  my  sister  and  her  daughter  and  my  brother.  I  thank 
the  Lord  Serapis  that  when  I  was  in  peril  in  the  sea  he  saved  me 
immediately.  ...  I  beseech  thee  .  .  .  father,  write  unto  me 
a  little  letter  firstly  of  thy  health,  secondly  of  that  of  my  brother 
and  sister,  thirdly  that  I  may  do  obeisance  to  thy  hand  because 
thou   hast  taught  me   well,   and   I   therefore   hope   to   advance 


650     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

quickly  if  the  gods  will.    ...    I  am  sending  thee  by  Euctemon 
a  little  picture  of  me.    Moreover  my  name  is  'Antonis  Maximus.'  " 

In  addition  to  the  opening  formula  here,  which  re- 
minds us  of  St.  Paul's  greetings  and  prayers  in  all  his 
letters,  there  is  a  true  touch  of  life  in  the  pride  which 
this  young  soldier  shows  in  his  new  Roman  name  and 
in  the  picture,  perhaps  in  his  new  uniform,  which  he 
sends  back  home.  The  piety  of  the  day  is  shown  by  a 
note  from  the  shipmaster  Irenseus  written  to  his 
brother  (second  century),  saying  he  has  arrived  safely 
with  his  cargo  of  corn  at  Rome,  "and  the  place  wel- 
comed us,  as  God  wills."  ^^ 

Many  other  examples  in  the  social  and  religious 
history  of  the  first  century  might  be  given  from  the 
new  texts  illustrating  the  New  Testament.  Several  in- 
scriptions speak  of  the  sparrows  sold  in  the  market  in 
packages  of  ten  (Matthew  10:28;  Luke  12:6). 

So  the  phrase  "Deliver  unto  Satan"  ( i  Tim.  i :  20) 
corresponds  exactly  to  the  formula  in  a  magical 
papyrus  which  attempts  to  render  the  cursed  one  unable 
to  speak:  "Daemon  of  the  dead  ...  I  deliver  unto 
thee  N.  N.,  in  order  that  .  .  .  ";  while  the  "bond  of 
his  tongue  was  loosed"  (Mark  7:  35),  is  exactly  illus- 
trated from  a  magic  spell  which  reads:  "Bound  and 
fast  held  through  the  mouth  and  fast  held  the  tongue." 
The  phrase  used  by  Mark  is  one  often  used  in  the 
magical  texts,  and  shows  that  the  writer  of  the  gospel 
supposed  that  in  this  miracle  demonic  fetters  were 
broken  and  a  work  of  Satan  undone.^^  So  the  "marks 
of  the  Lord  Jesus"  (Gal.  6:  17)  probably  referred  to  the 
brand  of  freedom  placed  upon  the  slave  when  he  was 

"  Milligan,  Greek  Papyri,  No.  41 ;  Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  167-171. 
'*  See  for  full  discussion,  Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  304-310. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      651 

sold  to  the  temple  and  thus  liberated  from  his  master. 
The  usual  formula  for  this  reads: 

"N.  N.  sold  to  the  Pythian  Apollo  a  male  slave  named 

at  a  price  of minse  for  freedom." 

In  another  inscription  the  god  is  said  to  have 
"bought  with  a  price  'this  slave'  for  freedom."  ^* 

Everywhere  the  belief  in  magic  meets  us  in  the 
papyri  in  connection  with  the  religions  of  the  first  and 
adjoining  centuries.  The  heathen  had  always  trembled 
before  these  demonic  powers.  A  charm  recently  pub- 
lished well  represents  a  common  form: 

"Get  thee  back,  thou  enemy,  thou  dead  man  or  woman,  who 
dost  cause  pain.  .  .  .  Thou  hast  no  power  over  his  toes,  legs, 
arms,  spine,  head,"  ^^ 

Another  even  more  lately  published  reads: 

"I  give  thee  (queen  of  Hades)  his  ears,  nose,  nostrils,  tongue, 
lips,  and  teeth,  so  that  he  may  not  speak  his  pain;  his  neck, 
shoulders,  arms,  and  fingers,  so  that  he  may  not  aid  himself ;  his 
breast,  liver,  heart,  and  lungs,  so  he  may  not  locate  his  pain ;  his 
bowels,  belly,  navel,  and  flanks,  so  he  may  not  sleep  the  sleep  of 
health;  his  thighs,  knees,  legs,  shanks,  feet,  ankles,  heels,  toes, 
and  toe  nails,  so  he  may  not  stand  of  his  own  strength.  .  .  . 
Mayest  thou  irrevocably  damn  him  that  his  eyes  may  never  see 
the  light  of  another  month."  ^^ 

Above  an  ancient  structure  has  recently  been  found 
this  curious  curse: 

"Whoever  steals  the  nails  from  this  structure,  may  he  thrust 
them  into  his  eyes !"  " 

'* Cf.  1  Cor.,  6 :  20,  7:22;  Gal.  5:1,  13 :  Deissmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  303, 
325,  334. 

'=  Theban  Ostraca,  1913,  CI. 

'Mr/  and  Archcrology,  1915,  p.  206. 

"In  a  recently  discovered  magical  text  the  word  "gospel"  is  inserted, 
showing  the  thought  of  its  power  even  by  its  enemies  (J.  G.  Mihic, 
Hawara  Papyri,  pp.  338-397). 


652     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

But  such  curses  were  not  confined  to  heathen 
writers.  It  is  very  common  to  find  upon  Christian 
tombs  a  curse  upon  the  man  who  shall  disturb  the 
bones,  and  in  early  Christian  literature  this  belief  in 
demons  seems  almost  as  universal,  among  the  unedu- 
cated classes,  as  among  the  opponents  of  the  gospel. 

Nor  was  this  confined  to  the  grossly  ignorant.  The 
Hermetic  books — which  throw  precious  light  on  pre- 
Christian  times — were  so  famous  that  in  the  early 
Christian  centuries  many  writings  grew  up,  under  the 
same  title,  seeking  to  provide  an  acceptable  substitute 
for  Christianity  by  "combining  the  Neo-Platonic  phi- 
losophy, Philonic  Judaism  and  cabalistic  theosophy."  "'' 
The  credulous  faith  in  occult  and  demonic  power  meets 
us  everywhere  in  these  works.  The  early  Gnostics,  tho 
professing  earnest  allegiance  to  Christianity  and  claim- 
ing to  adhere  in  a  superior  way  to  philosophic  method, 
were  equally  superstitious.  Their  most  renowned  work, 
Pistis  Sophia,  was  first  fully  translated  in  1850,  and 
in  1 89 1  a  papyrus  was  published  by  Amelineau,  con- 
taining two  documents  disclosing  more  perfectly  the 
secrets  of  this  esoteric  system.  The  Gnostics  brought 
with  them  into  the  new  faith  "the  use  of  pictures  and 
statues,  of  incense  and  of  all  the  paraphernalia  of  the 
worship  of  the  heathen  gods"  (F.  Legge),  including 
this  firm  belief  in  magical  powers.  The  Pistis  Sophia 
pretends  to  give  the  secret  teaching  of  Jesus  to  his  dis- 
ciples during  eleven  years  which  he  spent  with  them 
after  the  resurrection,  and  certain  other  revelations 
made  after  his  ascension.     The  five  most  mysterious 

™F.  L.  Griffith;  for  the  Egyptian  elements  in  these  writings  and  their 
influence  on  early  Christianity  see  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie,  Personal  Religion 
in  Egypt,  1909,  and  other  literature  given  by  S.  J.  Case,  Evolution  of  Early 
Christianity,  1914,  p.  192n. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      653 

words  which  he  explains  and  makes  the  basis  of  this 
esoteric  teaching  are  zama,  zama,  ozza,  Rachama,  ozai. 
The  character  of  this  teaching  may  be  seen  from  a  quo- 
tation in  which  the  author  explains  the  glory  of  the 
"first  mystery,"  which  is  as  the  two  vestures  of  Christ: 

"In  the  first  is  the  glory  of  all  the  names  of  all  the  mysteries 
and  of  all  the  emanations  which  are  in  the  ranks  of  the  two  re- 
ceptacles of  the  First  Mystery.  And  in  this  vesture  ...  is  the 
name  of  the  Recorder  who  is  the  First  Precept,  and  the  mystery 
of  the  Five  Marks,  and  the  mystery  of  the  great  Legate  of  the 
Ineffable  One  who  is  the  same  as  the  Great  Light,  and  the 
mystery  of  the  Five  Prohegumeni,  who  are  the  same  as  the  Five 
Parastatse."  ^^ 

The  influence  of  this  mystical  and  magical  teaching 
upon  Christianity  was  immeasurably  great.  All  these 
synthetic  systems  taught  that  it  was  through  the  secret 
knowledge  of  hidden  names  and  through  the  perform- 
ance of  certain  sacraments,  known  only  to  the  initiated, 
that  the  highest  rank  could  be  obtained  by  the  believer, 
in  this  world  and  in  the  next.  This  idea  was  very 
prominent  in  all  the  religions  which  were  popular  in 
the  first  century.  The  Mithras  worship,  which  was  the 
most  popular  of  all,  contained  much  astrology  and  much 
magic,  tho  the  pictures  connected  with  its  shrines  doubt- 
less showed  to  the  initiate  divine  secrets  concerning  the 
nature  of  God  and  his  relation  to  man  and  salvation. 
One  of  the  most  surprizing  single  discoveries  of  this 
generation  connected  with  this  ancient  cult  is  that  of 
Dr.  A.  Dieterich,  who  in  1903  published,  with  learned 
notes,  what  he  considered  to  be  substantially  "an  entire 
liturgy  of  Mithras,"  the  "only  one  which  we  have  re- 

"  For  a  very  learned  attempt  to  explain  the  exact  meaning  of  all  these 
terms  and  of  the  system  as  a  whole,  see  F.  Legge,  Forerunners  and  Rivals 
of  Christianity,  1915,  2  vols. 


654    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ceived  essentially  entire"  from  the  ancient  past.^*'  This 
document,  written  according  to  Dieterich  about  a.d. 
300  and  arising  not  later  than  a.d.  200,  clearly  proves 
to  us  that  tho  these  ceremonies  and  beliefs  were  mixed 
with  many  magical  names  and  much  senseless  super- 
stition; yet  they  presented  in  a  really  spiritual  way  the 
"raising  of  the  soul  to  the  divine  light  and  into  union 
with  God,"  actually  using  in  this  effort  some  of  the 
same  symbols  in  which  the  Christian  church  has  em- 
bodied its  highest  thoughts."  ^^ 

In  his  struggle  for  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  the 
disciple  of  Mithras  seeks  a  new  birth: 

"If  it  indeed  seems  good  to  you,  permit  me,  though  now  held 
down  by  my  lower  nature,  to  be  reborn  to  immortality  .  .  . 
that  I  may  become  mentally  reborn,  that  I  may  become  initiated, 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  may  breathe  in  me."  ^^ 

These  words,  which  have  become  so  familiar  to 
Christian  worshipers,  must  not,  however,  blind  us  to 
the  vast  difference  in  meaning  between  the  two  teach- 
ings. This  "new  birth"  is  to  be  accomplished  largely 
by  magic  ceremonies  and  comes  in  any  case  through  a 
mystic  knowledge,  not  through  a  transformation  of  the 
moral  personality.  The  expectation  of  the  future  also 
is  as  different  from  that  of  the  Christian  as  can  well  be 
conceived : 

"Hail  to  thee,  lord,  ruler  of  the  water ; 
Hail  to  thee,  lord,  establisher  of  the  earth ; 
Hail  to  thee,  lord,  disposer  of  the  spirit. 
"Lord,  I  that  am  born  again  take  my  departure,  being  exalted 
on  high,  and  since  I  am  exalted,  I  die;  born  by  the  birth  which 

*•  Eine  MithrasUturgie,  Leipzig,  1903. 

"  Dieterich,  op.  cit.,  pp.  26-29. 

** Dieterich,  op.  cit.,  p.  4;  Case,  Evolution  of  Early  Christianity,  p.  329. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      655 

engenders  life,  I  am  redeemed  unto  death,  and  go  by  the  way 
which  thou  hast  appointed,  as  thou  hast  made  for  a  law  and 
created  the  sacrament,"  etc.^^ 

Whether  this  be  in  reahty  an  original  Mithraic 
Hturgy,  as  Dieterich  supposed,  or  only  a  Mithraic 
charm,  as  others  have  since  affirmed,  in  either  case  it 
shows  the  religious  influences  molding  the  early  Chris- 
tian centuries. 

Even  the  Jews,  who  for  many  centuries  had  been 
the  chief  exponents  of  one  omnipotent  God,  were  caught 
in  the  swirl  of  magical  beliefs — just  as  were  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  Protestants  of  the  middle  ages.  They 
depended  for  power  over  disease,  etc.,  largely  upon 
books  of  magic  and  magical  spells.^*  In  the  recently 
published  Book  of  the  Key  of  Solomon  (1914),  which 
was  the  ancient  authority  on  magic  rites,  is  an  injunc- 
tion to  guard  the  secrets  of  the  book  as  one  ''would 
guard  his  own  soul" — which  shows  how  fearful  the 
power  of  these  secret  names  were  supposed  to  be.  The 
phylacteries  dating  from  the  first  century  recently 
found  by  M.  Caster — which  represent  the  very  same 
phylacteries  that  St.  Matthew  mentions  (23:  5) — testify 
to  the  same  dread,  as  seen  in  the  combinations  and 
permutations  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  in  represent- 
ing the  divine  name.^^  In  Phrygia,  where  the  Jews 
were  very  rich  and  influential  in  the  early  Christian 
centuries,  Sir  William  Ramsay  found  in  May,  1914, 
two  gravestones,  each  about  five  feet  high  and  finely 

^  See  for  this  quotation,  Albert  Schweitzer,  Paul  and  His  Interpreters, 
1912,  p.  187;  for  a  full  discussion  of  the  Mithras  religion,  F.  Legge,  Fore- 
runners and  Rivals  of  Christianity,  1915,  11:224-276;  and  W.  J.  Phythian- 
Adams,  Mithraisin,  1915;  and  for  a  summary.  New  Schajf-Herzog  Ency- 
clopedia, VII :  419#. 

^  See  Schiirer,  op.  cit..  Ill :  151-5. 

^Society  of  Biblical  Archccology,  Proceedings,  March,  1916,  etc. 


656     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

ornamented,  on  one  of  which   (a.d.  220-250)   was  in- 
scribed the  following  unique  curse: 

"If  any  one  after  their  burial  .  .  .  shall  inter  another  corpse 
or  do  injury  in  the  way  of  purchase,  then  shall  he  bring  upon  him 
the  curses  written  in  Deuteronomy."  ^^* 

The  owner  of  this  tomb  is  said  to  have  "filled  all 
municipal  offices,"  having  been  "strategos,  steward  of 
the  market-place,"  etc. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  influential  Jew 
wrote  worse  Greek  than  even  his  Christian  contempo- 
raries; yet  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  Jews  in  Phrygia 
at  this  time  were  rich  and  powerful.  Indeed,  it  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  place  in  the  Roman  Empire  where 
the  Jews  were  not  influential;  tho  they  were  probably 
more  favored  in  Egypt  than  anywhere  else.  In  con- 
sidering the  social  and  religious  influences  of  the  first 
century,  historians  must  give  the  Jew  a  prominent 
place. 

It  has  long  been  known  that  Alexandria  in 
Ptolemaic  times  was  the  home  of  the  largest  Hebrew 
population  in  the  world,  one  of  its  four  chief  quarters 
being  inhabited  exclusively  by  Jews.  It  was  here  that 
the  financiers  of  this  race  received  their  initial  educa- 
tion as  the  bankers  and  money  lenders  of  the  civilized 
world.  At  Oxyrhynchus,  Grenfell  and  Hunt  found  a 
number  of  fragments  of  an  official  letter  (cir.  a.d.  400) 
which  mentions  the  "heads  of  the  congregation"  and 
"elders  of  the  synagog";  and  another  legal  document 
of  perhaps  the  fifth  century  to  which  several  Jews 
had  fixt  their  signatures.  The  Jewish  Quarterly  Re- 
view, October,  191 5,  fills  thirty  pages  with  the  names 
of  the  towns  in  the  Roman  Empire  in  which  the  Jews 

^^  Expository  Times,  1915,  p.  170. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      657 

are  known  to  have  lived  and  prospered  in  the  first  cen- 
tury, and  about  fifty  places  can  be  mentioned  in  Egypt 
where  they  are  known  to  have  flourished.  That  they 
were  organized  in  Egypt  as  a  religious  community  as 
far  south  as  Abydos  as  early  as  the  third  century  before 
Christ  is  proved  by  a  will  in  which  the  testators,  who 
were  "heads  of  the  congregation,"  left  as  one  of  their 
most  important  legacies  a  valuable  manuscript  of  the 
Torah,  specifying  that  it  should  be  divided  among  cer- 
tain relatives  or  friends.^^ 

Under  Vespasian  the  temple  of  Onias,  which  had 
been  founded  several  centuries  before,  was  closed.  In 
Trajan's  reign  because  the  Jews  rose  and  massacred 
the  Greeks  they  were  practically  exterminated  in  Alex- 
andria; but  at  a  later  period  they  repopulated  Egypt 
and  recovered  many  of  their  ancient  privileges.^^ 

An  interesting  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the 
Jews  within  half  a  generation  of  the  apostolic  age  has 
just  been  published — a  third  century  papyrus  telling  of 
a  delegation  of  Greeks  and  Jews  who  came  opposing 
each  other  in  a  case  before  the  Emperor  Trajan  (cir. 
A.D.  114).  One  of  the  chief  men  against  the  Jews  was 
"Paulus,"  a  Tyrian  by  birth  but  by  profession  a  lawyer, 
from  Alexandria.  Both  Jews  and  Greeks  are  said  to 
carry  "their  gods"  with  them  to  Rome.  The  Jewish 
representatives  were  from  Antioch  in  Syria — where 
the  disciples  of  Jesus  were  first  called  Christians, — and 

^Society  of  Biblical  Archceology,  Proceedings,  1915,  pp.  217-220. 

*'  The  classical  work  discussing  the  condition  of  the  Jews  in  the  early 
Christian  centuries  is  Schiirer,  History  of  the  Jewish  People,  tho  this  has 
now  been  largely  supplemented  by  the  great  work  of  Juster,  Les  Juifs 
dans  I'empire  Romain,  2  vols.,  1914.  For  comprehensive  information  con- 
cerning Christianity  in  the  early  centuries  see  Harnack,  Mission  and  Ex- 
pansion of  Christianity  in  the  First  Three  Centuries,  2  vols.  (2d  ed.), 
1908 ;  also  G.  H.  Box,  London  Expositor,  July,  1916. 


658     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

were  named  Simon,  Glaucon,  Thetidas,  Onias,  Colon, 
Jacob,  and  Sopater.  Trajan  is  represented  as  favoring 
the  Jews  at  first  because  of  his  Hebrew  wife  Pletina; 
and  when  one  of  the  Greek  advocates  says,  "We  are 
distrest  that  your  council  chamber  has  been  filled  with 
godless  Jews,"  the  Emperor  replies  in  wrath,  "You  are 
studying  how  to  die,  being  so  contemptuous  as  to 
answer  me  insolently."  But  the  Greek  replies,  "Then 
help  your  own  people  and  do  not  defend  the  godless 
Jews" — and  as  he  speaks  the  sweat,  according  to  this 
papyrus,  breaks  out  on  the  bust  of  Serapis  which  the 
envoys  carried;  whereupon  Trajan  marveled  greatly 
and  a  tumult  of  fear  followed! 

Another  most  interesting  notice  referring  to  the 
Jews  was  published  in  191 2,  telling  of  the  ransom  by 
the  Jewish  synagog  of  a  middle-aged  Jewess  with  her 
two  children,  the  younger  of  whom  was  named  Jacob. 
Another  very  different  reference  comes  from  a  private 
letter  written  a.d.  41  by  a  man  in  money  difficulty,  who 
urges  his  friend  to  borrow  some  money  for  him  if 
possible  but  adds,  "Beware  of  the  Jews!" 

Signor  Dr.  E.  Breccia,  director  of  the  Alexandrian 
]\iuseum,  reported  in  1912  a  Greek  inscription  which 
is  not  only  of  some  importance  for  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  residents  in  the  Delta  in  Ptolemaic  times,  but 
is  interesting  because  of  the  famous  names  mentioned. 
It  is  engraved  on  a  block  of  marble,  and  informs  us 
concerning  a  new  site  of  a  Hebrew  settlement  and 
synagog: 

"In  honor  of  the  King  Ptolemy  and  of  Queen  Cleopatra,  his 
sister ;  and  of  the  Queen  Cleopatra,  his  wife,  the  Jews  of  Xene- 
phyris  (have  consecrated)  the  portal  of  the  Synagogue,  the  presi- 
dents being  Theodorus  and  AchiUion."  ^^ 

^Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  Quarterly  Statement,  January,  1914. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      659 

Many  Hebrew  manuscripts  have  recently  been  re- 
covered from  the  Ezra  synagog  in  Cairo.  While  the 
Genizah  in  this  synagog  was  discovered  by  a  learned 
traveler  as  early  as  1864,  and  was  visited  by  Dr.  N. 
Adler  in  1888,  it  was  not  until  later  that  its  treasures 
began  to  appear  in  European  collections.  Prof.  A.  H. 
Sayce  obtained  some  important  fragments  from  it,  and 
Mrs.  Lewis  and  Mrs.  Gibson  bought  from  some  officer 
connected  with  it  a  valuable  ancient  copy  of  Sirach; 
but  it  remained  for  Dr.  S.  Schechter,  in  1896  and  1897, 
to  obtain  permission  from  the  synagog  authorities  to 
remove  to  Cambridge  University  whatever  he  thought 
to  be  valuable  in  those  millennium-old  closets.  He  has 
told  in  a  fascinating  way  his  experience  in  doing  this.^^ 
He  obtained  not  only  some  12,000  Arabic  documents, 
but  a  vast  quantity  of  Hebrew  manuscripts  of  a  value 
beyond  all  price.  He  carried  away  only  MSS.  which 
he  felt  sure  were  over  400  years  old;  yet  obtained  as 
many  as  100,000  fragments  of  these  ancient  documents. 
He  found  "rationalistic  works  denying  the  existence  of 
either  angel  or  devil  glued  to  amulets  in  which  God  and 
angels  are  besought  to  protect  the  bearer  from 
demons";  he  uncovered  from  the  dust  of  ages  a  whole 
series  of  Hebrew  psalmists  hitherto  unknown,  together 
with  fragments  of  both  Talmuds,  many  autobiographic 
and  medical  works ;  some  very  ancient  Hebrew  liturgies, 
and  a  very  large  collection  of  Biblical  texts,  some  of 
which  are  earlier  than  any  Old  Testament  MSS. 
hitherto  known.  It  was  such  a  horde  of  ancient  docu- 
ments as  no  other  man  had  ever  been  permitted  to  ex- 
amine,  and  we  may  expect  for  the  next  generation 

*  S.  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  2d  series,  1908. 


66o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

annual  news  of  unlooked-for  treasure  dug  out  of  this 
pile  of  as  yet  unedited  documents.^^ 

Of  course,  a  number  of  ancient  schoolbooks  were 
among  the  material  found  by  Dr.  Schechter  in  the  old 
synagog  at  Cairo.  The  Jews  were  always  near  to  the 
front  so  far  as  child  instruction  was  concerned.  An 
ancient  Jewish  maxim  reads:  "The  school  teachers 
are  the  city's  watchmen";  and  a  distinguished  rabbi  is 
reported  as  once  saying:  "The  world  is  upheld  by  the 
breath  of  the  children  in  the  school  house;  their  in- 
struction must  not  be  interrupted  even  for  the  rebuild- 
ing of  the  temple";  while  Jehovah  is  represented  as 
saying:  "Dearer  to  me  is  the  breath  of  the  school 
children  than  the  savor  of  sacrifices." 

At  the  very  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  the 
young  were  instructed  systematically  in  the  schools  of 
Jerusalem,  and  this  was  extended  to  all  parts  of  Pales- 
tine shortly  after  the  lifetime  of  Jesus.  Everybody 
learned  to  read  and  write  and  studied  the  history  of 
the  Jewish  people;  but  foreign  languages  or  foreign 
histories  were  not  taught,  and  very  little  mathematics. 

Every  Jewish  child  had  to  be  taught  a  trade,  for 
the  rabbis  said:  "He  who  does  not  teach  his  son  a 
trade  virtually  teaches  him  to  steal."  ^^ 

During  the  first  half  of  the  first  century  the  Jews, 
as  the  New  Testament  indicates,  were  in  many  places  of 
influence  throughout  the  entire  Roman  world.     After 

^  Even  Dr.  Schechter  did  not,  however,  get  all  that  was  of  value. 
Either  another  synagog  has  given  up  its  Genizah  or  else  some  valuable 
things  were  strangely  missed  in  the  Ezra  synagog,  for  in  1913  the  pres- 
ent writer  obtained  in  Cairo,  a  considerable  part  of  one  of  the  oldest 
Hebrew  liturgies  known.  This  will  soon  be  edited  by  Dr.  R.  Butin,  of 
the  Catholic  University,  of  Washington. 

"  Cf.  besides  Schurer,  op.  cit.,  especially,  Ency.  Religion  and  Ethics, 
V;  \9Sff ;  Max  Radin,  The  Jews  Amongst  the  Greeks  and  Rotnans,  chap. 
xvi;  Jester,  op.  cit.,  and  Krauss,  Talmudische  Archdologie,  1910,  III :  230j^. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      66i 

the  shock  of  Jerusalem's  destruction  had  somewhat 
abated,  we  find  them  still  holding  high  positions  at 
court  and  distinguishing  themselves  in  many  dignified 
callings;  but  after  Justinian's  reign  (a.d.  527-565),  tho 
they  continued  to  be  celebrated  as  physicians,  they  were 
debarred  from  official  position  and  even  from  all  the 
more  honored  professions,  including  that  of  the  army. 

The  papyri  have  given  us  most  valuable  information 
concerning  the  trades  and  professions  of  the  early 
Christians.  Lefebvre,  who  has  cataloged  the  employ- 
ments of  all  the  Christians  who  have  left  inscriptions,®^ 
finds,  to  our  surprize,  that  while  there  were  many  very 
humble  men  among  the  early  Christians,  such  as  black- 
smiths, gardeners,  and  bakers,  there  were  also  archi- 
tects, sculptors,  writers,  and  an  unusual  number  of 
physicians.  There  were  not,  however,  many  soldiers, 
there  being  only  545  epitaphs  of  soldiers  in  all  the 
10,050  Christian  inscriptions.®^  This  was  probably  be- 
cause of  the  idolatrous  oath  which  every  soldier  was 
required  to  take,  recognizing  the  Emperor  as  divine. 

In  the  wealthier  districts  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
slave  labor,  as  Wilcken  has  shown,  monopolized  almost 
all  trades,  so  that  all  the  fishermen,  farmers,  shepherds, 
hand  laborers,  and  artizans  in  bronze,  iron,  and  wood, 
and  even  the  merchants,  money-changers,  bankers, 
physicians,  manuscript  writers,  and  teachers  were 
slaves.  This,  however,  does  not  apply  to  the  fishermen 
and  shepherds  of  Galilee.®* 

*^  Recueil  des  inscriptions  grecques-chretiennes  d'Egypte. 

•*  Lefebvre,  op.  cit.,  p.  xxxv. 

•*  Among  the  Jews  the  tanners,  perfumers,  butchers,  camel  drivers, 
and  publicans  were  generally  recognized  as  being  engaged  in  "unclean" 
trades,  and  sometimes  the  physicians  were  included,  as  their  profession  led 
to  materialism  and  loss  of  reverence  for  the  human  body. 


662     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  with  absolute  cer- 
ta'inty  that  the  trade  unions  which  were  so  common  in 
other  parts  of  the  empire  were  equally  popular  in 
Palestine.  At  least  2,500  inscriptions  and  other  docu- 
ments have  come  down  to  us  dealing  with  these.  Al- 
most every  trade  had  its  guild  or  union.  From  Thyatira 
we  hear  of  the  organization  of  the  tanners  (who  were 
also  sometimes  cobblers),  leather  workers,  slave  dealers, 
etc.  From  Italy  and  Egypt  about  a  hundred  different 
occupations  have  been  found  connected  with  these 
secret  societies,  among  which  we  can  reckon  the  guild 
of  shepherds,  the  highest  official  of  which  was  called 
the  "chief  shepherd"  {cf.  Heb.  13:20).  Each  trade 
union  was  under  some  particular  patron  deity,  Bacchus 
being  naturally  favored  by  the  innkeepers,  and  Her- 
cules, quite  as  naturally,  by  the  cabmen.  There  were 
certainly  doctors'  unions,  but  probably  no  lawyers',  the 
lawyer  giving  his  services  gratuitously  in  the  first  cen- 
tury. These  societies  made  no  provision  for  the  widow 
or  orphans,  neither  did  they  have  a  sick  benefit  con- 
nected with  them,  nor  did  they  ever  make  the  useless 
attempt  to  get  an  increase  in  wages,  so  far  as  we  know. 
They  were  influential  mainly  as  social  organizations. 

They  first  originated  as  "burial  clubs,"  but  soon 
grew  into  more  complex  trade  organizations.  The  only 
way  even  a  hard-working  laborer  could  be  sure  of  a 
decent  burial  in  the  first  century  was  by  joining  one  of 
these  clubs.  They  were  common  both  among  Jews  and 
heathen,  and  the  first  Christian  legal  organizations 
were  probably  formed  under  this  guise.  These  "unions" 
were  authorized  by  law  22  b.c.^  after  which  they  spread 
rapidly  during  the  first  and  second  centuries  of  our 
era,  and  with  these  "all  that  was  best  in  the  life  of  the 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      663 

common  people  was  bound  up."  ^^  The  entrance  fee,  so 
far  as  can  be  learned,  was  about  four  or  five  dollars, 
and  besides  this  there  were  monthly  assessments.  These 
clubs  provided  not  only  for  a  decent  burial,  but  gave  a 
new  impulse  to  life  to  their  members,  who  here  could 
breathe  as  nowhere  else  the  atmosphere  of  freedom 
and  self-respect.  When  an  extra  fee  was  paid  a 
memorial  feast  was  held  by  the  club  on  the  anniversary 
of  the  brother's  death. 

Corporations  of  capital,  which  monopolized  every 
possible  industry  and  food  product,  had  been  general 
for  hundreds  of  years,  but  by  the  end  of  the  first  or 
middle  of  the  second  century,  labor  was  quite  at  the 
mercy  of  unscrupulous  "trusts,"  which  controlled  prices 
and  the  transmission  of  food  products.  Even  as  early 
as  191  B.C.  a  play  speaks  of  the  "mountains  of  grain" 
which  the  dealers  had  in  warehouses;  and  a  papyrus 
some  centuries  later  speaks  of  the  high  price  of  meat 
as  due  to  the  fact  that  the  butchers  were  in  league  with 
the  city  fathers.  Josephus  tells  of  18,000  laborers  out 
of  work  in  Jerusalem  and  in  danger  of  dying  with  their 
families,  so  that  the  treasures  of  the  temple  were  drawn 
upon  in  order  to  support  them;  but  this  was  no  unusual 
condition.  Hundreds  of  thousands  were  forced  to  re- 
ceive gifts  of  corn  from  the  State  in  order  to  live  during 
the  first  century,  and  it  was  not  in  every  city  that  the 
officers  acted  as  generously  as  in  Jerusalem,  where  the 
authorities  made  provision  for  a  living  wage  for  all 
artizans.^* 

**  Pelham,  Essays  on  Roman  History,  p.  701^. 

**  In  Oxyrhynchus,  also,  superintendents  of  food  supply  were  constantly 

on  duty  (second  century)  guarding  the  distribution  of  grain  so  that  the 
people  could  get  bread  at  a  moderate  price,  Journal  of  Egyptian  Archce- 
ology,  1915,  p.  43. 


664    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

The  poor  people,  both  in  Palestine  and  Egypt,  were 
ground  to  the  earth  by  excessive  taxation.  The  tax 
collectors  had  so  evil  a  reputation  that  few  decent  men 
could  have  been  willing  to  hold  the  office.  Many 
papyri  and  ostraka  contain  complaints  against  the 
illegal  ''bleeding"  of  these  publicans.  So  numerous  and 
violent  were  these  charges  that  a  little  before  the  days 
of  Jesus  an  official  letter  was  sent  by  the  imperial 
authorities  to  these  publicans: 

"Do  not  all  the  time  be  on  the  point  of  levying  blackmail,  nor 
of  slandering,  but  carry  on  your  business  according  to  the  laws."  ®^ 

The  Jewish  authorities  had  the  same  low  opinion 
of  the  men  engaged  in  this  bad  business.  The  rabbis 
universally  class  publicans  with  robbers  and  men  with- 
out honor.  No  Jew  in  good  standing  was  allowed  to 
get  money  changed  from  a  publican's  cash  box,  since, 
presumably,  it  contained  stolen  property.  Intercourse 
with  these  men  was  sternly  forbidden  as  with  "sin- 
ners." ^®  It  is  noticeable  that  the  publicans  were  more 
severely  censured  by  the  rabbis  than  the  knights  to 
whom  the  tax  was  "farmed  out"  by  the  Romans. 

The  ostraka  which  come  from  the  first  and  adjoin- 
ing centuries  throw  a  vivid  light  upon  the  conditions 
of  taxation  at  that  time.  Everything  was  taxed.  Here 
are  receipts  for  the  bath  tax,  the  olive  oil  tax,  the 
natron  tax,  the  land  tax,  the  grain  tax,  the  tax  on  ferry- 
boats and  ferrymen,  the  dyke  tax,  the  salt  tax  and  the 
tax  on  bricks  (both  of  which  were  royal  monopolies 
and  must  have  yielded  a  handsome  income),  the  crown 
tax,  the  wine  tax,  and  the  tax  on  cobblers,  strangers 

"  See  texts  and  important  comments  in  Wilcken's  Ostraka,  1 :  568-9. 
"^  Krauss,  Talmudische  Archaologie,  1910,  Vol.  II,  pp.  374ff. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      665 

and  weavers.  Many  receipts  from  weavers  have  been 
found,  and  there  need  be  no  doubt  that  St.  Paul  had  to 
pay  some  tax  such  as  this. 

Unfortunately  the  tax  upon  many  commodities,  such 
as  vegetables,  clothes,  cattle,  etc.,  could  not  be 
standardized,  so  that  the  amount  of  such  taxation  was 
left  to  the  judgment  of  the  individual  publican — this 
leading  to  constant  injustice  and  recrimination. 

Very  many  of  the  ostraka  are  receipts  for  the  poll 
tax.  One  of  these  which  was  given  to  Psemmonthes 
and  his  wife  Talhoulis,  July  29,  a.d.  68,  is  dated  in  the 
fourteenth  year  of  Nero — which  seems  to  indicate  that 
these  poor  people  at  Thebes  had  not  heard  of  Nero's 
death  seven  weeks  after  it  had  occurred.^^ 

The  only  business  which  was  not  taxed  in  Palestine 
seems  to  have  been  the  fishing.^""  If  Peter  carried  on 
his  trade  in  other  lands,  as  tradition  affirms,  he  prob- 
ably found  the  conditions  less  favorable  than  in 
Galilee.^"^ 

The  tax  upon  wine  shops  is  almost  as  much  in 
evidence  as  the  poll  tax.  Religious  organizations 
were  also  compelled  to  pay  a  tax;  indeed,  the  place 
of  prayer  (nQOOEvyji)  was  taxed  higher  than  either 
the  manufactories  or  "saloons."  Was  this  because 
the  religious  corporations  were  more  honest  in  re- 
porting the  value  of  their  property?  Almost  the 
only  business  which  had  to  pay  a  larger  tax  than 
these  churches  or  "places  of  prayer"  were  the  houses 
of  prostitution.     Dr.  Petrie  found  at  Koptos  a  tax  re- 

"  For  many  such  examples  see  Theban  Ostraka,  Toronto,  1913. 

'""  Delitzsch,  Jewish  Artisan  Life,  p.  47. 

""  For  the  extraordinary  accuracy  of  the  New  Testament  terminology 
where  it  mentions  the  fishing  industry,  see  Expository  Times,  1917,  pp. 
229-31. 


666    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

port  in  which  seamen  were  taxed  five  drachmae,  skilled 
artizans  eight,  prostitutes  one  hmidred  and  two/^^ 

The  life  of  the  common  slave  was  unspeakably  hard. 
While  the  first  century  was  one  in  which  the  tombstones 
record  many  gifts  from  wealthy  men — gifts  to  cities 
and  schools — there  were  no  gifts  to  establish  hospitals 
and  almshouses  for  the  needy,  and  no  one  seems  ever 
to  have  thought  to  make  provision  for  the  comfort  of 
the  slave  population. 

We  are  not  denying  that  in  that  age,  as  now  in 
Turkish  countries,  the  attractive  slave  was  sometimes 
treated  with  tenderness.  Lady  Ramsay  has  just  shown 
in  an  interesting  discussion  that  occasionally  it  is  almost 
impossible  in  Asia  Minor  to  distinguish  now  between 
the  daughter  of  the  house  and  some  trusted  female 
slave  ;^°^  and  a  few  papyrus  letters  have  come  to  us 
confirming  this  judgment.  Among  these  the  following 
is  the  most  satisfying: 

"Ta-ys  to  her  master  Apollonios,  heartiest  greetings.  Before 
all  I  sahite  (with  a  kiss)  you,  Master,  and  I  ever  pray  for  your 
good  health.  I  was  not  a  little  distressed  to  hear  that  you  have 
not  been  feeling  well,  but  thanks  to  all  the  gods  that  they  keep 
you  without  stumbling.  I  pray  them  to  send  you  to  us,  if  it  seem 
good  to  you ;  otherwise  we  are  dying  because  we  do  not  see  you 
daily.  I  would  that  we  were  able  to  take  wings  and  come  and 
greet  you.  .    .    .   Farewell,  Master,"  etc. 

Beautiful  as  this  letter  is,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  notwithstanding  special  favors  that  might  be 
profifered  by  the  master  or  mistress  to  slaves  who  for 
some  reason  had  won  momentary  esteem,  yet  the  life 

"*In  the  third  century  before  Christ  certain  officials  at  CrocodilopoHs 
built  up  the  doors  of  their  houses  and  set  altars  against  them  to  avoid 
having  crown  officials  billeted  on  them.  Taxation  was  so  high  it  hardly 
paid  a  farmer  to  plant  an  orchard — as  now  under  Turkish  rule. 

"^  See  Expository  Times,  Februarj',  1916. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      667 

and  limb  of  every  slave  was  wholly  at  the  mercy  of 
their  proprietors,  and  slaves  were  ordinarily  regarded 
as  being  on  "the  level  of  the  brute."  "*  It  was  not  ex- 
pected that  they  should  be  either  moral  or  religious 
and,  without  any  question,  Plautus  has  exprest  their 
ordinary  moral  condition  when  he  writes: 

"A  wedding  among  slaves  ? 
A  strange  thing  this  to  play,  that's  nowhere  done!" 

Nor  are  we  able  to  accept  certain  modern  scholastic 
conjectures  that  morals  in  general  in  that  era  might 
have  compared  unblushingly  with  the  present.  It  is 
true  that  spotless  and  high-minded  women  were  some- 
times to  be  found,  as  Ovid  allows,  and  that  certain 
philosophers,  like  Seneca,  demanded  of  the  husband  an 
equal  faithfulness;  but  even  the  religion  of  the  masses 
encouraged  impurities,  and  the  most  popular  poetry 
and  novels  were  too  vile  to  be  legally  sent  through  our 
mails.  While  the  papyri  have  little,  if  anything,  to  say 
on  the  subject,  it  can  not  be  doubted  from  other  evi- 
dence that  the  temples  were  houses  of  assignation,  and 
that  even  the  priestesses  of  Isis  were  known  to  be  the 
mistresses  of  certain  men  of  letters  in  the  Augustan 
age;  it  was  actually  counted  a  sin  for  a  husband  to 
object  to  his  wife  taking  her  turn  in  offering  her  body 
for  hire  in  the  name  of  the  goddess.^"^  It  is  true  that 
Mithraism  with  its  blood  purification,  its  hope  of  im- 
mortality, and  its  belief  in  future  punishments  and  re- 

*°*Marucchi,  Christian  Epigraphy,  p.  11.  The  ordinary  feeling  is  well 
expressed  in  a  recently  discovered  inscription  when  during  a  four-days' 
show  eleven  slave  gladiators  were  killed,  whereupon  the  master  sets  up 
this  tablet  saying:  "Noble  fellow  citizens,  you  will  remember  this  in  my 
honor." 

^"'For  the  low  moral  standards  of  paganism  see  especially  Hastings, 
Diet,  of  Bible,  Extra  Vol.,  pp.  109-155. 


668     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

wards,  centering  around  the  miraculous  birth  and 
ascension  of  Mithras,  may  have  offered  a  moral  tonic 
to  the  devout  believer;  similarly  the  Emperor  worship 
was  doubtless  a  moral  advance  on  what  preceded; 
nevertheless  the  rapid  growth  of  Christianity  was  un- 
doubtedly due  to  its  moral  and  religious  superiority  to 
the  religions  which  it  superseded/"^ 

That  the  common  people  had  a  strong  religious  in- 
stinct is,  of  course,  perfectly  evident  from  their  faith- 
fulness to  the  religious  ceremonial  in  which  they  trusted 
and  from  their  immense  gifts  to  the  temples  ;^"^  yet  it 
would  seem  almost  in  spite  of  the  religious  influences  oi 
that  era,  rather  than  in  response  to  them,  that  so  much 
of  the  common  life  was  tender  and  worthy.  Certainly 
the  papyri  have  proved  that  the  love  of  husband  for 
wife  and  parents  for  children  was  often  tender  and 
devoted.  One  mother,  for  example,  in  the  third  cen- 
tury writes  in  illiterate  Greek,  sympathizing  with  her 
boy  because  of  the  splinter  that  had  injured  his  foot, 
and  saying  in  mother  language: 

"Do  not  forget,  my  child,  to  write  me  regarding  your  health, 
for  you  know  the  anxiety  of  a  mother  for  a  child.  Your  children 
greet  you." 

Many  such  pathetic  letters  could  be  quoted.  So 
a  wife  writes  to  her  husband  concerning  their  child 
(second  or  third  century) : 

"I  fear  he  may  die  while  you  are  not  here." 

"°See  J.  F.  Carter,  Religious  Life  of  Ancient  Rome,  1911,  pp.  90j^;  and 
Harnack,  Spread  of  Early  Christianity,  II :  29-177,  325. 

*"  These  temples  were  ordinarily  much  larger  and  finer  than  either  that 
of  Solomon  or  Herod.  The  Parthenon  only  measured  228  by  100  feet; 
but  the  temple  at  Sardes  was  300  feet  long,  and  that  at  Miletus,  359  by 
171  feet.  All  of  these  were  more  elaborately  decorated  than  the  Hebrew 
temple,  and  were  literally  crowded  with  votive  offerings. 


THE    EARLY    CHRISTIAN    CENTURIES      669 
And  a  little  girl  writes  to  her  father: 

"Ammonous  to  her  sweetest  father,  greeting.  Now  that  I 
have  got  your  letter  and  have  learned  that  by  the  will  of  the  gods 
you  have  been  kept  safe,  I  have  been  made  very  glad.  And  find- 
ing opportunity  the  same  hour  I  have  written  you  this  letter 
hastening  to  greet  you.  All  yours  individually  send  greetings  to 
you.  ...    I  pray  that  it  be  well  with  you." 


RECAPITULATION 

Because  of  their  importance  it  may  be  well  to  re- 
peat a  few  of  the  main  facts  brought  out  in  the  last  few 
sections  of  our  discussion,  adding  a  few  new  illus- 
trations. 

Making  a  broad  examination  of  the  papyri  gathered 
from  the  rubbish  heaps  and  comparing  them  with  other 
material,  we  are  now  able  to  throw  a  flashlight  upon 
the  early  Christian  centuries  such  as  was  never  possible 
before. 

For  the  first  time  modern  historians  are  able  to 
read  references  to  Jesus  and  the  early  Christians  cen- 
turies older  than  have  ever  before  been  known.  It  is 
true  that  from  a  late  manuscript  of  Lucian,  a  writer 
of  the  second  century,  we  had  learned  of  Peregrinus 
Proteus  (a.d.  165),  who  is  described  as  a  rather  un- 
worthy follower  of  the  ''crucified  sophist,"  and  from  a 
second  or  third  century  Syriac  document,  first  made 
known  in  1865,  we  had  received  the  testimony  of  Mara, 
who  compares  Christ  to  Socrates  and  Pythagoras,  call- 
ing him  the  "Wise  King"  and  speaking  of  his  "new 
laws,"  and  from  various  Roman  writers  such  as  Tacitus 
and  Pliny  we  had  received  most  valuable  information 
concerning  the  early  Christians;  but  none  of  these  had 
given  us  the  autograph  testimonies  concerning  early 
Christianity  which  have  in  such  multitudes  been  dug 
up  in  recent  years.  The  names  of  Jesus  and  Paul  have 
met  us  very  often  in  the  course  of  our  study,  while 
multitudes  of  the  documents  which  we  have  examined 

670 


RECAPITULATION  671 

were  written  by  early  Christians,  and  many  others 
mention  Jews  or  heathen  who  were  contemporaneous 
with  the  primitive  Christians. 

A  document  just  discovered  mentions  Nero  the 
famous  contemporary  of  St.  Paul.  This  infamous  ruler, 
whom  some  modern  scholars  have  attempted  to  eulogize 
as  the  champion  of  domestic  reform  and  universal  be- 
nevolence, may  not  have  "fiddled  while  Rome  was  burn- 
ing," but  he  certainly  followed  wherever  passion  led 
him  and  had  in  his  blood  the  ferocity  of  a  wild  beast  ;^ 
yet  in  the  autograph  copy  of  the  notification  of  his  ac- 
cession, written  November  17,  a.d.  54,  he  Is  spoken 
of  as  follows: 

"The  Csesar  who  had  to  pay  his  debt  to  his  ancestors,  god 
manifest,  has  joined  them,  and  the  expectation  and  hope  of  the 
world  has  been  declared  Emperor,  the  good  genius  of  the  world 
and  source  of  all  good  things,  Nero,  has  been  declared  Csesar. 
Therefore  ought  we  all  wearing  garlands  and  with  sacrifices  of 
oxen  to  give  thanks  to  all  the  gods." 

A  new  light  has  also  been  thrown  upon  literary 
conditions  among  the  poorer  classes. 

It  has  never  been  doubted  that  the  "Augustan  age" 
which  gave  to  us  the  classical  literature  now  studied 
in  our  colleges  was  an  age  of  mental  power.  No  more 
celebrated  professors  can  be  found  in  any  university  of 
the  world  to-day  than  could  then  be  found  at  Alexan- 
dria and  Athens  and  Tarsus. 

Pliny  in  his  "Natural  History" — which  was  com- 
pleted A.D.  'j'j — consulted  2,000  volumes.  Vespasian 
in  this  golden  age  of  Latin  literature  founded  the  uni- 
versity of  Rome  with  immense  libraries  and  originated 
the  "Carnegie  endowment"  idea,  establishing  pensions 

*See  e.g.,  Pelham,  Essays  on  Roman  History,  1911,  pp.  ^Zff. 


672     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

for  professors  of  the  liberal  arts.  Quintilian,  the  man 
first  pensioned,  in  a  great  work  still  valuable  for  its 
pedagogical  teachings,  argued  for  the  superiority  of 
public  schools  over  private  education,  condemned  cor- 
poral punishment,  taught  that  amusements  should  be 
turned  to  account  as  a  means  of  education,  argued  that 
children  should  begin  early  with  a  foreign  tongue, 
emphasized  the  fact  that  different  natures  demanded 
different  treatment  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  and  in 
fact  gave  ''the  first  scientific  statement  of  the  problems 
of  education."  ^ 

Yet  notwithstanding  this,  and  the  further  fact  that 
Epictetus  had  told  us  that  every  second  woman  in  Rome 
might  be  seen  reading  Plato's  Republic,  the  new  dis- 
coveries concerning  the  practical  universality  of  read- 
ing and  writing  among  all  classes  of  the  population  has 
come  upon  us  as  a  great  surprize.  It  is,  on  the  whole, 
comparatively  rare  to  find  a  man  unable  to  sign  his 
name  to  a  legal  document  or  to  find  it  stated  in  a 
papyrus  that  the  sender  of  the  letter  can  not  write. 

Shorthand,  as  we  have  seen,  was  used  in  taking 
notes  by  literary  and  professional  men  such  as  Cicero, 
Pliny,  and  Galen — experts  in  the  art  being  named  as  a 
class,  "notarii," — but  it  would  be  an  almost  equal  sur- 
prize to  many  to  know  that  "letter  books"  were  in  use 
in  antiquity  containing  copies  of  letters  sent  and  letters 
received,  portions  of  at  least  three  of  these  having  come 
down  to  us.  Every  class  of  people  could  write,  even 
those  who  were  so  poor  that  they  could  not  afford  a 
sheet  of  papyrus,  but  had  to  write  their  notes  on  scraps 
of  broken  pottery.  Numbers  of  students  write  home 
to  their  parents  telling  of  their  studies.    In  one  of  these 

■  See  Monroe,  History  of  Education,  199-208. 


RECAPITULATION  673 

(third  century),  the  text  of  which  was  pubHshed   in 
1914,  Aurehus,  Jr.,  writes  to  Aurehus,  Sr. : 

"My  sweetest  father,  many  greetings :  I  perform  the  act  of 
veneration  for  you  every  clay  before  the  gods  of  this  place.  Do 
not  be  anxious,  father,  about  my  studies.  I  am  industrious  and 
take  relaxation.    All  will  be  well  with  me." 

Another  letter  (fourth  century),  the  text  of  which 
was  published  at  the  same  time,  tho  full  of  misspelled 
words,  seems  also  to  be  from  a  schoolboy,  tho  perhaps 
one  in  the  lower  classes,  for  one  of  his  most  urgent 
requests  in  the  letter  is: 

"Bring  the  milk  cakes  when  you  come.  .  .  .  Not  the 
papyrus." 

A  contemporary  of  the  above,  who  was  evidently  a 
better  student,  writes  to  his  teacher  Gonatus  calling 
him  "My  incomparable  master"  (despota),  "the  con- 
solation of  all  his  friends."  So  a  father  writes  to  his 
son  (first  century),  "I  have  received  the  boxes  with 
the  books,"  and  tells  him  that  he  will  soon  receive  "the 
variegated  wrist  bands." 

As  w^e  read  these  many  documents  from  the  first 
and  adjoining  centuries,  written  in  the  language  of  the 
New  Testament,  we  are  imprest  with  the  truth  of  the 
apostolic  statement,  "To  us  the  toll  of  all  ages  has 
come  as  our  inheritance"  (i  Cor.  10:  11)." 

Much  new  light  has  been  thrown  upon  the  economic 
and  social  conditions  among  the  poor  of  the  first  cen- 
tury. While  one  court  physician  in  the  days  of  the 
elder  Pliny  had  an  income  of  $25,000  a  year,  and  a 
successful  charioteer  was  able  to  leave  his  children  a 

*  This  is  the  translation  of  Drs.  Rendel  Harris  and  James  Hope  Moul- 
ton,  Egyptian  Rubbish  Heaps,  p.  30. 


674     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

legacy  of  $1,400,000,  and  while  fortunes  were  so  com- 
mon among  the  rich  that  Augustus  (a.d.  6)  laid  a  tax 
of  5  per  cent,  on  bequests  of  $4,000  or  over,  and  num- 
bers of  millionaires  put  up  inscriptions  telling  of  their 
benevolent  gifts,  and  splendid  funereal  monuments  on 
which  they  show  themselves  counting  their  money;  yet 
the  poor  were  so  poor  that  thousands  of  them  were 
compelled  to  go  without  burial,  thrown  into  pits  like 
dogs  and  cattle,  while  those  of  the  middle  classes, 
farmers  and  artizans,  were  compelled  to  pay  enormous 
taxes,  and  when  they  ran  in  debt  were  compelled  to  pay 
12  per  cent.,  18  per  cent.,  and  22  per  cent.,  and  oc- 
casionally 48  per  cent,  interest  per  annum.^ 

It  must  be  remembered  that  altho  there  were  eighty 
different  trade  unions  in  Rome  alone,  yet  these  made 
no  effort  to  raise  wages  or  improve  wage  conditions — 
these  being  considered  beyond  hope.  Such  unions  were 
organized  solely  for  social  companionship  and  to  give 
a  little  help  in  some  cruel  emergency  such  as  death; 
yet  even  burial  expenses  were  forfeited  if  the  member 
failed  to  pay  his  dues  for  six  months.  These  were  not 
charitable  organizations,  but  were  for  social  and  con- 
vivial enjoyment.  It  was  the  social  feature  which  was 
most  important,  even  the  slaves  having  guilds  of  their 
own  in  which  the  officers  held  pompous  titles. 

Wherever  Paul  traveled  he  could  meet  other 
weavers  of  tent  cloth  in  fraternal  fellowship,  while 
Luke  would  naturally  go  with  the  physicians.^ 

The  superstition  of  the  first  century  has  been  con- 
stantly   evident.      Not    only    amid    the    orgies    of    the 

*  Lanciani,  Ancient  Rome,  chap,  iii ;  Kenyon,  Greek  Papyri,  ccii. 

^  However,  it  is  possible  that  in  the  first  century  the  best  physicians,  like 
teachers,  felt  it  a  disgrace  to  charge  for  their  services,  and  therefore  may 
not  have  joined  together  in  a  "trade"  fraternity. 


RECAPITULATION  675 

oriental  worshipers  can  it  be  said  the  "air  thrilled  with 
demonic  terror,  [and]  witches  and  lewd  sorceresses 
abounded";  but  in  all  classes  of  the  population  the  fear 
of  demons  was  a  constant  terror.  No  texts  are  more 
numerous  than  those  which  have  to  do  with  incanta- 
tions and  charms.  There  were  few  medical  recipes 
that  did  not  include  "the  blood  of  a  white  cat"  or  some 
other  magical  ingredient,  Altho  Augustus  burned 
2,000  books  of  unlicensed  divination,  yet  even  he  be- 
lieved in  the  astrologers,  while  Tiberius  used  the  sacred 
lot,  Cicero  consulted  the  Pythia,  Nero  used  magic  to 
protect  him  from  the  ghosts  of  the  women  he  had  mur- 
dered, Domitian  seems  to  have  been  literally  scared  to 
death  by  an  astrological  omen,  and  Marcus  Aurelius 
consulted  a  charm  doctor  in  order  to  cure  his  wife's 
infatuation  for  a  gladiator.^ 

If  the  best  educated  were  thus  controlled  by  super- 
stitious terrors,  we  must  not  wonder  at  the  common 
people  nor  be  surprized  if  we  find  some  Christians,  not- 
withstanding their  faith  in  the  Christ,  whose  "Name 
was  above  all  names,"  yielding  sometimes  to  super- 
stitious fear.  Von  Dobschiitz,  however,  believes  that 
magic  had  very  little  hold  upon  the  Christian  Church 
previous  to  the  fourth  century,  when  martyr  worship 
and  the  use  of  relics  encouraged  this;  and  he  shows 
conclusively  that  "the  morality  of  early  Christianity, 
notwithstanding  its  imperfections,  was  unmistakably 
higher  than  all  the  Greek  civilization  could  achieve."  ^ 
This  judgment  we  believe  the  study  of  the  papyri  has 
confirmed. 

Previous  to  the  fourth  century,  the  poorly  educated 

"Dill.  op.  cit.,  pp.  446-450. 

'  Encv.  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  "Charms  and  Amulets";  and  "Christian 
Life  in  the  Primitive  Church,"  IX:  363-379. 


6y(i    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

Christians  naturally  used  such  local  charms  as  were 
not  against  their  religion,  but  made  war  on  everything 
that  seemed  connected  with  the  adoration  of  demons. 
While  after  that  time  Bible  texts  and  the  name  of 
Jesus  and  the  sign  of  the  cross  are  used  as  protective 
charms,  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  multitude  of 
magical  texts  discovered  in  which  Isis  and  Horus  are 
mentioned  side  by  side  with  Jewish  archangels,  and 
other  imprecations  and  spells  in  which  Christian  and 
Jewish  and  heathen  sacred  names  occur  together,  may 
generally  have  been  of  Gnostic  origin,  adopted  by 
heathen  magicians  after  they  began  to  acknowledge 
the  power  of  Jewish  and  Christian  deities.^  In  any 
case  no  one  can  fully  understand  Christianity's  battle 
as  the  conquering  "religion  of  the  spirit"  without  recog- 
nizing the  universal  dominance  of  these  fleshless  "world 
rulers  of  this  darkness"  against  which  the  Christians 
wrestled  (Eph.  6:  12). 

It  must  not  be  denied  that  appeals  to  magic  became 
very  frequent  in  and  after  the  sixth  century,  and  that 
morality  was  correspondingly  affected  in  some  in- 
stances. A  Coptic  text  of  about  a.d.  600,  which  cor- 
rectly speaks  of  the  current  "madness  of  idolatry"  in 
Egypt  and  asks,  "Who  shall  be  able  to  persuade  the 
people  to  despise  demons?"  mentions  in  the  same  con- 
nection healing  by  "spittle"  and  by  the  "Word"  of 
Jesus.^  The  common  people  then  were  much  as  the 
common  people  are  now  in  Palestine  and  Egypt.  The 
modern  Arabs  who  visit  the  excavations  to-day  wear 
charms  against  fever  and  ophthalmia ;  so,  like  their  con- 
temporaries,  many   ignorant    Christians    in    the   early 

'  See  Zeitschrift  fiir  Archaologle,  XXXII :  47. 
"  Anecdota  Oxoniensia,  1913,  No.  15. 


RECAPITULATION  677 

centuries  sought  charms  against  the  demons  asthma, 
croup,  hydrophobia,  insanity,  and  indigestion. 

An    interesting,    altho    rather    obscure    love-charm 
reads : 

"Kronos  who  holds  in  check  the  spirit  (breath)  of  all  men, 
hold  in  check  the  spirit  of  Hori.  O  Lord  whom  Mary  bore,  do 
not  permit  him  to  speak  to  him  whom  Taises  bore ;  because  I  con- 
jure thee  by  the  finger  of  God  not  to  open  your  mouth  to  him, 
because  Krinoupelike  is  subject  to  Kronos.  Do  not  permit  him 
to  speak  to  him  neither  night  nor  day.   .    .    . "  ^^ 

Yet  the  ministry,  even  down  to  the  sixth  and 
seventh  centuries,  altho  in  some  cases  very  ignorant, 
were,  as  we  have  previously  seen,  compelled  in 
some  cases  to  have  a  better  knowledge  of  Scripture 
before  ordination  than  many  of  our  theological  students 
receive  now.  This  is  abundantly  proved  from  various 
ostraka  where  Samuel,  Jacob,  Aaron,  and  others 
promise  "to  master  the  gospel  of  John"  and  Papas  and 
another  bind  themselves  to  learn  by  heart  either  the 
gospel  of  John  or  the  gospel  of  Matthew;  and  still 
another  agrees  in  the  same  way  to  memorize  the 
"gospel  according  to  Mark."  '^  So  Ammonius  (cir.  a.d. 
390)  is  said  to  have  been  able  to  repeat  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament  by  heart. 

The  religious  condition  of  the  common  people  in  the 
first  century  has  been  fully  exposed  by  the  revelations 
in  the  papyri.  That  the  pagan  world  has  been  painted 
too  dark  by  earlier  Christian  scholars  all  historians  now 
acknowledge.  The  crimes  and  abnormal  wickedness 
of  the  court  circles  made  known  to  us  in  the  classics 
do   not   appear    in   the   same   prominence    among   the 

"  Greek  text  in  Coptic  Ostraca,  No.  522. 
^'  Crum,  Coptic  Ostraca,  Nos.  29,  30,  34-39. 


678    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

middle  and  lower  classes  made  known  to  us  throuo:h 
the  papyri.  The  world  into  which  the  gospel  came  was 
really  "very  religious"  (Acts  17:22).  The  people  as 
a  whole  believed  not  only  in  God,  but  in  many  gods; 
they  had,  too,  a  sense  of  sin  and  a  desire  to  escape 
from  a  just  judgment  which  they  feared.  The  follow- 
ing specimen,  found  ready  for  use  in  an  ancient  model 
letter  writer,  shows  how  in  private  life  this  sense  of 
sin  against  one's  neighbor  sometimes  exprest  itself: 

"I  know  that  I  erred  in  that  I  treated  thee  ill.  Wherefore 
having  repented  I  beg  pardon  for  the  error.  But  for  the  Lord's 
sake  delay  not  to  forgive  me.  For  it  is  just  to  pardon  friends  who 
stumble,  and  especially  when  they  desire  to  obtain  pardon"  {cf.  i 
Cor.  4 :  10 ;  2  Cor.  4:11;  Phil.  3:7-8;  Luke  17:4). 

There  is  no  doubt  that  many,  even  among  the  com- 
mon people,  were,  however,  losing  their  faith  in  the 
gods  they  were  taught  to  worship.  In  one  papyrus  re- 
cently published,  a  man  writes: 

"Come  at  once.  If  you  neglect  this,  as  the  gods  have  not 
spared  me,  so  will  I  not  spare  the  gods."  ^^ 

How  very  different  from  this  is  the  joyous  state- 
ment of  the  New  Testament  that  "faith  is  the  title  deed 
of  things  hoped  for"  (Heb.  11:  i).^^ 

The  Christian  seriousness  of  faith  and  love  for  God 
and  fellow  man  must  have  been  surprizing  and  almost 
amusing  to  their  contemporaries.  One  papyrus  shows 
a  certain  Pamphilus  (sixth  century)  borrowing  twelve 
pieces  of  gold  at  33/^  per  cent,  interest  for  the  sake  of 

"  Oxyrhynchns  Papyri,  VII,  No.  1065. 

*'This  is  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  text,  cf.  Moulton,  From  Egyptian 
Rubbish  Heaps,  p.  28. 


RECAPITULATION  679 

distributing  these  among  the  poor !  Such  an  act  would 
have  been  impossible  until  the  new  doctrine  had  taken 
deep  hold  upon  society.  We  had  known,  before  the 
papyri  gave  up  their  testimony,  something  of  these 
Christian  benefactions  of  the  early  centuries;  but  these 
autograph  memoranda  add  to  our  respect  for  the 
"brotherhood"  sentiment  among  the  early  followers  of 
Jesus." 

These  early  believers  also  show  a  higher  average 
type  of  morality  than  could  have  been  expected.  Among 
all  the  cases  of  church  discipline  opened  up  in  the 
papyri,  no  single  instance  of  a  grave  charge  is  now  re- 
membered by  the  writer,  except  one  case  of  "blasphemy" 
and  another  of  "ill-using  the  poor."  It  is  certainly 
suggestive  of  a  rather  high  ideal  to  find  even  as  late  as 
the  sixth  century  that  a  man  who  divorced  his  wife, 
except  for  adultery,  was  excluded  from  communion, 
together  with  the  man  writing  the  divorce ;  and  that 
one  who  marries  a  brother  or  sister's  daughter  could 
not  have  communion  "be  he  alive  or  dead";  neither 
could  any  one  come  to  communion  who  was  at  "enmity 
with  his  neighbor."  ^^ 

The  heathen  thought  of  God  differed  so  diamet- 
rically from  that  of  the  Christian  that  it  was  impossible 
for  them  to  have  the  same  divine  ideal  of  purity, 
righteousness,  and  humanity,  as  that  which  came  with 
the  faith  that  the  meek  and  holy  Jesus  was  the  highest 

"In  a  house  in  Algeria — used  as  a  church  during  the  reign  of  Diocle- 
tian— has  been  found  in  connection  with  the  chalices  of  gold,  silver,  lamps, 
etc.,  used  with  the  ancient  church  ritual,  thirteen  pairs  of  men's  boots, 
forty-seven  pairs  of  women's  shoes,  sixteen  male  tunics,  and  eighty-two 
female  tunics — Pagan  and  Christian  Rome,  p.  42.  Were  these  used  in  the 
church  services,  or  were  they  for  distribution  to  indigent  Christians? 

'^  Crum,  Coptic  Ostraca,  Nos.  71-73;  a  most  curious  case  of  church  dis- 
cipline is  that  in  which,  when  Onesimus  is  late  for  service,  his  ox  is  chas- 
tised (Ramsay,  Bishopricks  of  Phrygia,  p.  149). 


68o     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

conceivable  representative  of  the  heart  and  personality 
of  God.  While  the  ordinary  Roman  of  the  first  cen- 
tury had  advanced  morally  to  a  point  where  he  could 
no  longer  accept  unspeakably  wicked  deities  as  his 
models,  yet  he  was  still  accepting  Osiris  and  the 
Emperor  as  divine  ideals.  The  Emperor  worship, 
was  very  different  in  Egypt  from  the  Ptolemaic 
"Kaiser-cult;^*^  yet  in  most  parts  of  the  empire  it  was 
more  deep  and  serious,  and  certainly  more  popular, 
than  that  of  any  other  deity.  But  the  Emperors  were 
not  leading  ideal  lives  and  did  not  possess  characters 
which  could  encourage  morality.  It  was  in  spite  of 
such  worship  that  many  noble  virtues  lingered  among 
the  middle  classes. 

Many,  perhaps  most,  of  the  people  whom  Paul  met 
had  fairly  good  moral  character  and  were  honestly 
desirous  of  living  upright  lives.  It  is  a  fact  em- 
phasized not  only  by  the  papyri,  but  also  in  the  literary 
works  of  the  first  century,  that  almost  all  of  the  vices 
enumerated  by  Paul  (i  Cor.  6:9-10)  were  recognized 
as  evil  by  the  pagans,  while  most  of  his  virtues,  such 
as  temperance  and  faith,  were  being  praised.  God  had 
not  left  himself  without  a  witness  even  among  those 
who  had  lost  faith  in  written  revelation. 

While  we  must  read  Ovid  and  Petronius  in  ex- 
purgated editions  and  while  many  of  the  epigrams  of 
Martial  ''should  be  effaced  from  human  memory,"  com- 
paratively few  of  the  papyri  and  inscriptions  show  the 
same  putridity  of  imagination.  The  common  people  in 
every  age  have  represented  the  best  morality  of  the  age. 
Juvenal's  description  of  the  women  he  knew  as  "lewd, 
petulant,  and  reeling,  rife  with  wine,"  does  not  repre- 

"  See  especially  F.  Blumenthal,  A.  f.  P-F,  V,  317/. 


RECAPITULATION  68 1 

sent  the  women  whom  we  meet  in  these  texts,  which 
sprang  out  of  the  hfe  of  the  common  people.  Every- 
where we  find  husbands  and  wives  praying  for  their 
friends  and  leading  useful  and  hard-working,  depend- 
able lives,  caring  lovingly  for  their  families,  and  giving 
amazing  gifts  out  of  their  poverty  in  votive  offerings 
to  the  temples. 

Nevertheless,  when  we  remember  the  wall-paintings 
and  public  inscriptions  of  Pompeii  and  recall  the 
character  of  the  shows  which  were  most  popular  among 
all  classes  in  the  first  century;  when  we  remember  the 
way  in  which  the  slaves  were  treated,  and  notice  that 
in  almost  every  slave  contract  published  scars  are  men- 
tioned, and  that  the  guaranty  must  be  included  against 
epilepsy  or  some  worse  disease;  we  must  acknowledge 
that  heathen  civilization  in  the  first  century,  at  its  best, 
does  not  compare  very  favorably  with  Christian  civiliza- 
tion at  its  worst. 

It  would  be  instructive  to  a  certain  class  of  his- 
torians to  be  compelled  to  live  for  a  while  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  ancient  heathendom  and  study  the  ancient 
letters  and  plays  and  court  records  and  life.  The  most 
beautiful  pagan  letter  of  consolation  coming  from 
ancient  times  is  perhaps  the  following,  from  the  second 
century : 

"Irene  to  Tacunophria  and  Philo,  good  cheer!  I  was  much 
grieved  and  wept  over  the  blessed  one,  as  I  wept  for  Didymus, 
and  everything  that  was  fitting  I  did,  and  all  who  were  with  me. 
But  truly  there  is  nothing  any  one  can  do  in  the  face  of  such 
things.    Do  you  therefore  comfort  one  another.    Good-bye."  ^^ 

Compare  such  a  letter  with  Paul's  tender  words 
(2  Thess.  4:  14-18),  and  notice  the  infinite  difference. 

"Milligan,  Greek  Papyri,  No.  38. 


682     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

While  undoubtedly  most  of  the  Romans  of  the  first 
century  believed  in  an  existence  of  some  sort  in  the 
world  beyond — a  belief  due  in  part,  it  may  be,  to  the 
Jews  but  chiefly  to  the  teaching  of  the  oriental  re- 
ligions,— yet  the  common  funereal  inscriptions  were  not 
joyous: 

"Into  nothing  from  nothing  how  quickly  we  go." 
"Once  we  were  naught,  now  we  are  as  we  were." 
"I  was  not,  I  was,  I  am  not,  I  care  not." 

The  last  expression  (non  fui,  fui,  non  sum,  non 
euro)  was  so  commonly  used  that  it  is  sometimes  in- 
dicated merely  by  the  intial  letters  "n.f.f.n.s.n.c/'  Even 
at  the  best  the  hope  of  such  a  future  life  as  the  heathen 
of  the  first  century  accepted  could  not  bring  the  helpful 
sympathy  in  hours  of  bereavement,  and  the  joyous  cer- 
tainty of  future  blessedness  which  was  the  unique  pos- 
session of  the  Christians. 

The  grossest  sexual  crimes  are  publicly  referred  to 
without  shame  in  the  witticisms  written  upon  the  walls, 
in  the  private  letters,  and  in  the  dramatic  plays.  A 
farce  coming  from  the  second  century  is  not  only 
full  of  the  coarsest  allusions,  but  the  plot  hinges 
on  the  base  proposal  made  to  a  slave  by  his  young 
mistress,  leading,  after  the  proposal  is  declined, 
to  an  order  for  his  crucifixion  along  with  the  female 
slave  whom  he  is  supposed  to  love.  To  this 
same  century  belongs  the  speech  of  an  advocate 
who  affirms  publicly  in  court  that  the  chief  judge 
has  had  improoer  relations  with  a  seventeen-year-old 
boy. 

But  no  text  the  writer  has  ever  seen  has  so  imprest 
upon  him  the  difference  between  the  ancient  and  modern 


RECAPITULATION  683 

civilization  as  the  letter  from  Hilarion,  an  Egyptian 
laborer,  written  to  Alis,  his  wife,  June  17,  i  B.C..  con- 
cerning his  own  child  and  concerning  a  babe  probably 
about  to  be  born  to  his  daughter  :^^ 

"Hilarion  to  Alis,  his  sister.  Many  greetings.  ...  Be  not 
distressed  if  at  the  general  coming  in  I  remain  at  Alexandria.  I 
pray  thee  and  beseech  thee  take  care  of  the  little  child.  And  as 
soon  as  we  receive  wages  I  will  send  them  to  thee  ( ?).  .  .  .If 
...  is  delivered,  if  it  be  a  male  baby  let  it  live,  if  it  be  a  female, 
expose  it." 

Look  at  that  awful  Greek  word,  sxPa^e,  "cast  it 
out,"  ''expose  it!"  What  could  put  in  stronger  relief 
the  horrors  of  that  age  in  which  the  lover  of  little 
children  came  preaching  the  "Good  News"  than  just 
the  letters  which  form  that  commonplace  word,  written 
with  such  utter  indifference  and  without  the  slightest 
apology  or  excuse  to  that  far-off  mother. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  case  of  child  exposure  made 
known  to  us  in  the  papyri.  It  was  such  a  common 
thing  that  a  large  number  of  documents  have  come  to 
us  from  Alexandria,  dating  near  the  birth  of  Christ, 
all  of  which  prove  to  be  contracts  with  women  who 
acted  as  nurses  for  these  little  babies  picked  off  the 
rubbish  heap,  to  be  kept  for  slaves  or  used  for  immoral 

19 

purposes. 

As  we  compare  even  the  best  teaching — not  to  speak 
of  the  practise — revealed  in  these  ancient  heathen  writ- 
ings, with  the  New  Testament  gospels  and  letters,  we 

"  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  IV :  744. 

"  Menander's  chief  comedy  is  based  on  the  story  of  an  exposed  child 
which  a  shepherd  has  found  in  the  wilderness,  with  which  was  found  also 
a  necklace  and  ring.  Onesimus  finds  the  ring  and  recognizes  it  as  the 
property  of  his  master,  and  then  the  fun  begins ! 


684     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 

appreciate  as  never  before  the  words  of  Athanasius 
(a.d.  367)  in  his  recently  recovered  Festal  Letter: 

"These  are  springs  of  salvation,  so  that  he 
WHO  is  athirst  may  be  filled  with  the  oracles 

IN  THEM,  In  them  ALONE  IS  THE  TEACHING  OF 
piety  PROCLAIMED  AS  GOOD  NEWS.  LeT  NO  ONE  ADD 
TO   THEM,    OR    TAKE    AWAY    AUGHT    FROM    THEM."  "° 

'"Zahn,  Geschichte  des  neutestamentlichen  Kanons,  11:210. 


SCRIPTURE   TEXTS    ILLUSTRATED 

AND 

INDEX 


[-685] 


SCRIPTURE  TEXTS  ILLUSTRATED 


Gen.    26:  22 370 

Josh.    IS:  44 359 

2    Kings    10:  27 27 

Esther    2:  18 35 

Ezra   6:  11 27 

Dan.    2:5 27 

49    38 

Matt.    1:  16 184 

18-20     184 

Matt.    3:11 129 

16-17     336 

Matt.   4:  25 372 

Matt.   5:  40 130 

Matt.   6:2 122 

5    122 

7    130 

16    122 

Matt.     7:  3 130 

18    159 

Matt.    9:  36 120 

Matt.    10:  26 217 

28    650 

Matt.    15:  1-20 230 

21ff 286/F 

Matt.     16:  18 197 

Matt.     19:  16-22 217 

Matt.     20:  1-16 284 

Matt.    23:  5 655 

Matt.    24:  24 227 

30    606 

Matt.   26:  29 130 

64     606 

Matt.    28:  19 xvii 

Mark    1:4 197 

Mark    4:  11 124 

22    217 

24    196 

Mark    5:  3 116 

Mark    7:  1-23 230 

35    650 

Mark    10:  31 217 

38    229 

Mark    12:  38 116 

Mark    13:22 227 

Mark    14:  25 130 

26    335 

Mark    15:40 35 

Mark    16:  9 583 

14ff 164 

17    194 

Luke    1:  1-4 581 

Luke    2:2 46 

5    183 

34    335 

36    183 

Luke   4:  24 197 

29    183 

Luke    6:  4 138 

28    197 

37    196 


Luke    7:22 xvii 

29    183 

Luke    11:2 138,  196 

3     196 

Luke    12:  2 217 

6    650 

Luke    15:  11/?' 327 

12    649 

21    197 

Luke    16:  8 150 

25    182 

Luke    17:  4 678 

10    182 

21    217 

Luke    18:  5 120 

Luke    19:  20 ISO 

21    129 

22    182 

29    355 

Luke    22:  49 151 

51    151 

55    151 

Luke   23:  34 181 

53    116 

Luke    24:  18 120 

John     1:4 196 

John    3:5 197 

13    182 

John    5:  22 607 

John    6:  44 196 

John    7:  53— S:  11 187 

John    8:  1-11 187 

12    196 

34    181 

John    9:3 343 

7    358 

39    335 

John     10:  1-10 152 

5    .  .' 152 

24    196 

45    153 

Tnhn     11:  16 130 

31     183 

John    12:  6 129 

John     13:  14 197 

John     14:  24 197 

John     15:  5 116 

14    128 

John     IS:  13 181 

John    20:  31 197 

John    21:  15-17 181 

16    279 

Acts     1:3 280 

12    649 

Acts   2:  6 190 

Acts    4:   13 129 

Acts    6:  7 615 

Acts     7:  2 190 

Acts    8:  10 191 

Acts    9:  16 229 

r  f''S7 1 


-Acts    10:  33 589 

36    191 

39    129 

Acts    11:5 190 

11     589 

20    191 

Acts     12:  13 595 

20    649 

Acts    13:  1 38 

7    538 

12    539 

Acts    14:  5 414 

8-19    '.525f 

12    526 

Acts    15:  22 120 

Acts    16:    6 415 

13    191 

37    129 

40    564 

Acts    17:  5 129 

6    126 

16    488 

17    492 

19    489 

21     488 

22    490,  678 

28    491 

Acts    18:  Iff 494 

2    518 

4    501 

5    191 

9-10     494 

24    120 

Acts    19:  5 229 

9    473 

18-20    474 

24    476,    479,  482 

24-35     565 

35    469/.,   476 

Acts    20:  4 517 

28    191 

35    211 

Acts    21:  16 129,   191 

29    11 

32    589 

39     542 

Acts    22:  16 190 

35    129 

Acts   23:  30 589 

Acts    27:  17 580 

37    580 

Acts   28:  11 580 

Rom.   4:  IS 281 

Rom.     6:  3 229 

Rom.     7:  iff 619 

Rom.    8:  \ff 114 

14    120 

20    155 

Rom.    10:  12 xvii 


688     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGlCAL  DISCOVERIES 

Rom.    15:28 36  24    123      Titus    3:12-13 120 

Rom.     16:7 120  27    229      rhilemon,    17 329 

25    124      Gal.    5:1 651  18    126 

1    Cor.    1:14-16 494  12    126      Heb.     2:2 130 

26-31     501  13    651  7    347 

1   Cor.  2:  7 124      Gal.  6:  11 38,  585  10    129 

1    Cor.   3:10 129  17 38,  650      Heb.    6:6 252 

16    494      Eph.    3:3 124  17    130 

1    Cor.   4:10 678  6    xvii      Heb.    11:1 678 

17    649      Eph.    6:12 676      Heb.    12:17 252 

1  Cor.  6:9 649  19    124      Heb.    13:5 116 

9-10     680  21     518  20    662 

11    607      Phil.     1:4 130      James   1 :  3 37,588 

15    494  12    327  12    347 

20    651      Phil.    2:9 128      1    Pet.    1:7 37,  588 

1  Cor.  7:22 128  11    128      1   Pet.   2:2 37 

23  651   Phil.  3:7-8 678   2  Pet.  1:1 127 

1  Cor.  8:5-6 128    8 123    10  130 

1    Cor.   9:24-26 495      Phil.    4:2 518      3    John    1 322 

21    120  18    122      Jude    6 607 

1    Cor.    10:11 673      Col.    1:7 570  7    130 

13    589      Col.  2:  14 128,  583  17    607 

21     127  18    537      Rev.    2:7 607 

1    Cor.    11:3-10 543/      Col.   4:12 570  10    562 

1    Cor.   12:3 128  14    581  13    120 

1    Cor.    \l:\if 114  16   118,570  20    565 

1   Cor.  15:33 43  18    585  27    564 

1   Cor.    16:1,   35,    125/.   570       1   Thess.   1:9 329      Rev.    3:5 607 

1    Thess.   4:14-18 681  7-13     569 

1  Thess.  5:27 118  12    569 

2  Thess.    3:17-18 585      Rev.     5:1 583 

1    Tim.    1:20 650      Rev.    8:38 607 

1  Tim.    2:8 130      Rev.    9:5 607 

2Tim.2:14 Ill  20    191 

2  Tim.  3:  10-11 526      Rev.    11:  18 191 

2   Tim.    4:7 130      Rev.    13:1^ 37 

8    347  16-17     37 

13    648  18    191 

17    596      Rev.    14:9 37 

Titus    1:4 500  19    Ill 

8    347      Rev.    17:5 192 

12    491      Rev.    18:14 116 

10    37     Titus   2:13 127      Rev.    19:20 37 


IS  . 

494 

21  . 

585 

2  Cor. 

2  Cor. 

2  Cor. 

11  . 

2:  12 

3:  8-10 

4:  6 

419 

114 

. ...  607 
678 

2  Cor. 
2  Cor. 
2  Cor. 

6:9/ 

8:  23 

9 :  11^ 

114 

. ...  500 
...  114 

2  Cor. 
6  .  . 

11:4 

....  155 
.  .  .114 

Gal.  1: 
Gal.  2 

15 

:  6-9 

....  541 
.  .  .114 

Gal.  3: 

:  1 

123 

INDEX 


Abbott,  Dr.,  594,  642. 
Abbott,  E.  A.,  309.  311. 
Abbreviations   in   papyri,    120. 
Abgar-Christ    correspondence,    41f.,    474. 
Abraham,   Testament   of,   235. 
Achilles  Tatius,   Work  by,   59. 
Acrostic  hymn,  303. 
Acts  of  John,  233/. 

—  Martyrdom,  338/.,  344. 

—  Paul,  236/. 

—  Peter,  233. 

—  Philip,  244. 

— -the  Apostles,  103,  414. 

Adams,  J.,  491. 

.lEgean    civilization,    originated    in    Crete, 

xiii. 
Agape,  267,  408. 

Agnosticism  in   early  centuries,   58. 
Ahikar.    Story   of.    612. 
Akhmim,  cemetery  at,  408^. 
Alcaeus,  work  by,  59. 
Alciphron's  Letter-writer,  644. 
Alcman,  work  by,  acquired,  7. 
Alexander     of     Alexandria,     sermon     by, 

288/. 
Alexandria,  68/.,  573. 
Alexandrine   codex,    136/?. 
Algerian   Fathers,   358. 
Altar  of  Zeus  at  Pergamum,  563. 

—  triangular,  505. 

Amenemhat  III.   and  the  Fayum,  25/. 

Amente   (Hades),  239/.,  286. 

Amethysts,  295. 

Amherst  papyri,  41,  65,   142. 

Amulets,   ancient,  290if.,  295ff. 

Amusements,  90/. 

Ananias  of  Shirak,  sermon  by,  279. 

Anderson,  J.   C,  430. 

Andrews,   492. 

Angels,   in  apocryphal  gospels,  232. 

Anti-Jewish  bias  of  Gospel   of  Peter,  223. 

Antinoe,    cemeteries   at,    403/. 

Antioch  in  Asia  Minor,  53 Iff. 

—  Syria,  549ff. 

Antiquity,    study  of,  and  archeology,  xiii. 
Apa  Eusebius,  sermon  by,  286/. 
Aphrodite  papyri,  48. 

—  statues  of,  498/. 
Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  235/. 

—  Peter,  219/.,  225ff. 
Apocryphal   Acts,   233. 

—  gospels,  219ff.,  224ff. 

—  writings,  character  of,  241  ff. 
Apologetic,   early   Christian,   257. 
Apology  of  Aristides,  245ff.,  572. 
Apostles,  in  Didache,  269. 

—  pictures  of,  390. 

—  statutes   of,    340. 


Apostolic  doctrine  in  Didache,  262. 

—  preaching,  by  Irenaeus,  255/. 
Apprenticeship,   56/.,  93. 
Aquila,  495. 

Aquileia,  571. 

Arabic  text  of  Diatessaron,  203,  205. 

Aramaic    inscriptions,    361. 

—  language,  175. 

Archeology  and  authorship,  xvi,  xxii. 

—  and  geography,  xxii. 

—  and  Greek  civilization,  xiiiff. 

—  and  higher  criticism,  xv,  xxiv,  10. 

—  and  historical  research,  xxii. 

—  and  Scripture,  xiiiff.,  xv. 
Architecture  at  Athens,  483ff. 

—  at  Corinth,  497ff. 

—  at  Cyzicus,  433ff'. 

—  at  Ephesus,  462ff. 

—  at  Pompeii,  374ff. 

—  at  Salona,  439. 

—  in  Syria,  440ff. 

—  in  the  Fayum,  67. 
Areopagus,   489/. 
Aretas,  369. 

Aristeas,  Letter  of,  613. 
Aristides,  246. 

—  Apology  of,   254ff.,   571. 
Aristotle    "On    the    Constitution,"    8ff. 
Armenian    Acts   of   Apostles,    200. 

—  translation  of  Ephraem  Syrus,  203. 
Arsinoe    (Crocodilopolis),    66. 

—  papyrus  finds  at,  8. 

Artemis,  images  of,  470,  477ff.,  499. 

—  temples  of,  461  ff.,  566. 

—  worship  of,  465,  565f. 
Art  objects  at  Rome,  503 ff. 
Arundell,  F.  V.  J.,  521. 
Asclepius,  temples  of,  486,   507,  563, 
Asia   Minor    and   Archeology,    xiv,    412,7. 

521ff. 

—  Phrygian,  415ff. 
Asiarchs,  467. 
Assos,  553/. 

Assumption  of  Moses,  617. 
Assumptionist    Fathers,    357/. 
Astrological   documents,   53. 
Astronomical  works,  49. 
Athanasius,  Canons  of,  340. 

—  sermon  by,  284/. 
Athens,   discoveries  at,  482ff. 
Attic  and  vernacular  Greek,  582. 
Auguries  from  birds,  474. 

Austrian  excavations  at  Ephesus,  471  ff. 
Authorship  and  archeology,  xvi,  xxii. 
Avircius,  425/. 


Baal-Tarz,  543. 
"Babbler,"  489. 


[689] 


690     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 


Bacchylides,  Odes  of,  14. 
Balanos,  M.,  483. 
Balestri,  P.  J..  1S7. 
Baptism,  266/.,  341,  400. 
Baptismal  pictures,  400. 
Baptizo  metaphorized,  229/. 
Barnabas,  son  of  Nebo,  38. 

—  epistle  of,  134. 
Bartholomew.  238. 
Barton,  Dr.,  502. 

Baruch,  Greek  Apocalypse  of,  236/. 
Basil,  Canons  of,  340. 
Basilicas,  Christian,  in  Syria,  444ff. 
Baths,   public,   83,   90,   95,   374,   446,  448, 

452,  510,  553. 
"Beast,"  reference  of,  37. 
Beatus,  presbyter,   197/. 
Begging  letters,  early,  330^. 
Behnesa  (Oxyrhynchus),  >:iv,  19. 
Belief   of   sub-apostolic   Church,   261. 
Benndorf,  O.,  471/?.,  480. 
Bensly,  R.  L.,  184. 
Bernard,  Bishop,  309/.,  312. 
Bethesda,  pool  of,  358. 
Bethphage,  stone  of,  355. 
Beza,  Theodore,  138. 
Birds,  auguries  from,  474. 
Bishops,  in  Didache,  270. 
Blass,  R,  36,  111,  113. 
Bliss,  F.  J.,  357,  359. 
"Blunders"   in   New  Testament  language. 

111. 
Bohlig,  H.,  543/. 
Bohairic  Coptic  dialect,  186. 

—  sermons  of  Chrysostom,  289. 

—  version  of  New  Testament,  188,  210. 
Boni,  G.,  507/. 

Book  of  the  Resurrection,  238. 

Bosio,  A.,  385. 

Botanical  work  by  Dioscorides,  59. 

Breccia,  E.,  658. 

Briggs,  R.  A.,  376. 

British    Museum    publications    of    papyri, 

10/.,  12ff.,  44/.,  47/. 
"Brother,"  meaning  of,  34. 
Bryennios,  P.,  260/f.,  277. 
Buchanan,  E.  S.,  195/. 
Budge,  E.  A.  W.,  189,  283,  307. 
Bulic,  F.,  433,  438/. 

Burial   associations,   96,    275,   424^.,   662/. 
Buried  cities,  light  from,  351/F. 
Burkitt,  F.  C,   176,   179,  184/. 
Business  letters.  Christian,  323/. 
Butler.  H.    C,  442ff..  483,   565. 

Casarea,  135,  556. 

Cssars,  palaces  of,  511/?. 

Cagnat,  R.,  576. 

Cairo  genizah,  659. 

Calder,  W.  M.,  537. 

Calendar,  Church,  61,  337. 

Callimachus,  writings  by,  55. 

Calpurnii,  tombs  of  the,  504  fr. 

Canaan,     exploration     of,     xiii/?.,     351/?., 

363/.,  577ff. 
Canon  of  Scripture,  333. 
Canticles,  Christian,  308. 
Capernaum,  location  of,  366/. 
Capital  punishment,  632/. 
Capitalism,  ancient,  663,  673/. 


Carrara,  F.,  432. 

Carter,  J.  F.,  599,  668. 

Carthage,  573/. 

Carus,  1>.,  600. 

Casanowicz,  I.  M.,  368. 

Case,  S.  J.,  128,  652/. 

Catacombs,  Roman,  383/?. 

Cavvadias,  P.,  483. 

Cemetery,  Christian,  at  Cyzicus,  435^. 

Cemeteries,  Christian,  in  Egypt,  402. 

Census,  Roman,  46,  78/.,  538'. 

Cercidas,  "Meliambi"  by,  57. 

Chabot.   186. 

Chalice  of  Antioch,  550/. 

Charles,   R.   H.,  259,  603^.,  613,  622. 

Charms,  Christian,  295/?.     See  also  Magic. 

Charta  hieratica   (Augusta),  5. 

—  Livia,  5. 
Chassinat,  E.,  189. 

Chirography  of  Fayum  documents,  170. 

Chrestomathy  of  notables,  59. 

Chrestophorus,  324/. 

"Chrestus"  for  "Christus."  423. 

Christ  as  rock,  279. 

— 'Correspondence  of  Abgar  with,  41/. 

—  date  of  birth  of,  47. 

—  date  of  death  of,  633^. 

—  ideal  portraits  of,  42,  389,  395/.,  550/. 
Christian  churches  in  Egypt,  95. 
Christianity,  Oriental,  578. 
Christians,  employed  environment,  xix. 

— -in  Aristides'  Apology,  248/?. 

—  persecutions  of,   66/.,  272,   275,   434^., 

513. 

—  under  Moslems.  48/. 
Christology  of  Odes  of  Solomon,   319. 
Chrysostom,  sermons  of,  in  Bohairic,  289. 
Church  a  mystery-fraternity,  124. 

—  calendar,  61,  337. 

—  discipline,  early,  340/.,  346. 

—  early,  light  on,  577/?. 

—  names,  61,  337. 

—  the,  in  Shepherd  of  Ilermas,  254. 

—  services  in  sixth  century,  61. 
Churches  in  Syria,  444/?. 
Cisterns  in  Jerusalem,  357. 
Clark,  A.  G.,  553. 

Clarke,  S.,  97. 

Classics  and  modern  discovery,  590/9^. 

Cleanthes,  Hymn  of,  490/. 

Clemen,  C,  491. 

Clement    of    Alexandria,    211/.,    216,    244, 

300. 
• — of  Rome,  First  Epistle  of,  152. 

—  of  Rome,  Second  Epistle  of,  336. 
Clermont-Ganneau,  C,  355. 

Cock  as  emblem,  360,  533. 
Codex  Alexandrinus,  136/?. 

—  Bezae,  138/..  212. 

—  Claromontanus,  139. 

—  Corbeiensis,  199. 

—  Dublinensis,  139. 

—  early  papyrus,  date  of,  4. 

—  Fuldensis,  203. 

—  Laudianus,   139,  199. 

—  Nitriensis,  139. 

—  Sinaiticus,  xv,  133^. 

—  Vaticanus,   135)?. 
Collignan,  M.,  564. 
Colosseum,  Roman,  513/. 


INDEX 


691 


Communal  houses,  82. 

Coins,  38J,  496,  52Sf.,  533.  542,  564. 

Commandment,   second  great,  262. 

"Common  people"  in   first  century,  590. 

Conder,  C.  R..  355,  357. 

Confession  at  baptism,  341. 

—  of  faitli,  early,  344. 
Conflict  of  Severus,  240. 
Confusion  of  Jesus  and  the  Spirit,  252. 
Constantine,  arch  of,  508/. 
Constantinople,  571. 

Conybeare,  F.  C,  254,  583. 
Cook,  A.  B..  535. 
Cooley.  A.  S..  501. 
Coptic  dialog,  343. 

—  language  and  dialects,  xix/.,  186. 

—  (Sahidic)    liturgy,  340. 

—  private   letters,  329/. 

—  sermons    in,   280/. 

—  texts    of    New    Testament,    149,    152/., 

186/?. 
Corinth,  discoveries  at,  493/?. 
Cowley.  A.,  369. 
Craft,  A.  N.,  595. 
Creed  of  Early  Church,  247. 
Crete,  xiii,  557. 
Crime,  85/. 

Crocodiles  and  papyri,  40. 
Crocodilopolis   (Arsinoe),  66. 
Cross,  295,  299.  360.  392,  480. 
Crown,  golden.  476. 
Crucifixion  as  a  penalty,  633. 

—  of  Jesus,  date  of,  634. 

Crum,  W.   E.,   166,   280,  331/.,  340,  343/., 

679. 
Cryptograms,  456. 
Cumont,  F.,  430.  599/. 
Cureton.  W.,  176. 
Cybele,  417.  533,  535. 
Cyprian,  193. 
Cyprus,  552/?. 
Cyzicus,  430/.,  572. 

Dale,  R.  W.,  577. 

Dalman,  G.,  370.  631. 

Damascus,  544/?. 

Damasus,  Pope,  387.' 

Damianus,  sermon  by,  280. 

Daphne,  grove  of,  550. 

David,  J..  189. 

Davis,  W.  S.,  592. 

Deacons,  in  Didache,  270. 

Death,  early  Christian  view  of,  399. 

— -  personified,  239. 

—  way  of,  in  Didache,  264. 
Decian  persecution,  272,  275/. 
Deissmann,    A.,    xviff.,    23,    30/?.,    39,   47, 

106,  114,  119,  126,  128.  141,  142,  165/., 

216.  325,  327,  346,  474,  490,  496,  501/., 

555.  648,  651. 
Deity  of  Jesus,  214,  224.  285,  401. 
Delattre,  Pere,  574/. 
Demetrius,  482. 
Demons,  fear  of,  295/?. 
Derbe.  discoveries  at,  526/?. 
De  Ricci.  S.,  411. 
Der  il-Kahf.  455. 
De  Rossi,   G.   B.,  on  the  Catacombs,  xix, 

383/7.,  386,  515. 
De  Vogiie,  C.  J.,  M..  441/?. 


Devotional  collections,  52. 

De  Waal.  391.  520. 

Diaconate   in  early  centuries,  326. 

Diana,  see  Artemis. 

Diatessaron,  199/?. 

Dictation  of  letters,  100/?.,  584. 

Didache,  260/?. 

Dieterich,    A.,    653/. 

Dignity    of    New    Testament   Greek,    117, 

121. 
Dill.  S..  591,  596. 
Dining,  posture  at,  375. 
Diobouniotis,  C,  257. 
Diocletian,  433/?. 
Diognetus,  Epistle  to,  251. 
Dioscorides,  59,   113,  581. 
Divination,  296.     See  also  Magic. 
Divorce  decrees.  81/. 
Djebel  Halakah,  ruins  at,  453. 
Dobschiitz,  E.  von,  675. 
Dorpfeld,  W.,  483,  497,  563. 
Dolls,  magical,  360. 

Domestic   architecture   in    Syria,   444^. 
Donehoo,  J.  De,  241. 
D'Ooge,  M.  L.,  483. 
Doxology,  early,  277. 
Dreams,  297. 
Drummond,  J.,  623. 
Eastern  Church,  hymns  of,  304/. 
"Eastern"  text.  171,  173. 
Ecclesiastical  Canons.  339/. 

—  history,  early  book  on,  339. 
Ecclesiasticus,  604. 

Edgar,  C.  C,  14. 

Egypt  and  archeology,  xiii. 

—  Greek  language  in.  xviii. 

Egyptian  religion  and  Christianity,  404/?., 

411/. 
Eisen,  G.  A..  551. 
Election  notices.  379fF. 
Elephantine  papyri,  xiv. 
Elgin,  Lord,  483. 
Elliott,  W.  A.,  150,  324. 
Emperors,    worship    of,    127/.,    533,    554, 

601.  680. 
Enoch,  Book  of,  220,  605/?. 
Enrolment  document,  47. 
Ephesians,  Pauline  authorship  of,  101. 
Ephesus,    churches   at,    471. 

—  discoveries  at,  461/?. 

Ephraem  Syrus,  commentary  of,  202/. 

Epicharmus,  poem  of,  42. 

Epimenides,  491. 

Epistle  to  Diognetus,  251. 

Epistolary     literature,     53/.,     72/.,     86/?., 

lOOff.,  584ff.,  640/?.,  646/?.,  668/.,  673, 

681. 
Epitaphs,    Christian,   347,   369/..   386,   388, 

392/?.,  411/?.,  419/?.,  425/.,  456/?.,  480/. 
Eschatology  of  Apocalypse  of  Peter,  226/. 
Ethiopic  Liturgy,  342. 
Eucharist,  in   Didache,  266ff. 
Eucharistic  symbols,  397. 
Eulogius,  44. 
Euphemia,  Saint,  337. 
Euripides,  fragments  from,   16,  43,  53. 

—  Satyrus'  life  of,   58. 
Excommunication,  345/. 

Exile,  Christian,  in  Egypt,  322/. 
Ezra,   a   learned  man,  xxi. 


692     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 


Family  and  social  life.  lOff.,  23,  28/.,  44/?., 
55,  70/f.,  86f.,  91/.,  123,  321/.,  330f., 
395.  399,  445*".,  459,  635ff.,  663,  673/. 

—  infelicities  revealed,  29. 
Farm  records,  11/.,  86/. 
Fasts,  in  Didache.  266. 
Fayum,  architecture  in,  67. 

—  described,  65ff.,  168/. 

—  isolation  of  the,  74,  88,  96.  168/. 

—  life  in  the,  69^.,  168f. 

—  papyri  finds  in,  Sff.,  26.  168ff. 

—  population  of.  67. 

—  topography  of,  25,  65/?. 

Fayumic  version  of  New  Testament,  188/. 
Finance    in    early   centuries,    72,    81/.,    88, 

94. 
First  century  illustrated,  577*. 
Fish  as  symbol,  397/. 
Flats  in  antiquity,  82. 
Flavius  Abinaeus,  324. 
Forgiveness,  sermon  on,  283. 
Forum,  Roman,  excavation  of,  507*. 
Fossores,  323. 
Fourth  Ezra,  619. 

—  Gospel,   early  date   of,  401/. 
Fowler.  W.  W.,  600*. 
Freedmen  in   Roman   Empire,  591/. 
Freer,  C.  L.,  160/.,  307. 
"Friend,"  meaning  of,   35. 
Fronto,  Gains  Caristanius,  540. 
Funeral  associations,  83.     See  also  Guilds. 

Galatia,  Phrygian,  415*.,  523*. 
Galatians,  character  of,  417/. 

—  date  of  Epistle  to,  502. 
Gallio,  494.  502. 
Gardner.  E.  L..  465,  486. 
Gaster,  M.,  362.  655. 
Gaume,  Abbe,  383. 
Gemara,  624. 

Gemellus,  letters  by,  28. 
Genealogies  omitted  in  Diatessaron.  208. 
Genizah    Hebrew    manuscripts,   659*. 
Geography  and  archeology,  xxii. 
Gerasa,  in  Decapolis,  372. 
German  Oriental   Society,  366/. 
Gezer,  excavations  at,  363/. 
Ghettos.  79,  516. 
Gibson,  Mrs.,  xv,   176*. 
Gifts  to  temples,  77,  476*. 
Gilmore,  G.   W.,  551. 
Gladiatorial  combats,  375,  5l3f.,  595/. 
Glasses,  pictured,  from  Rome,  520. 
Gnostic  hymn,  301*. 
Gnosticism,  301*..  407,  410,  652*. 
Goldschmidt,  L..  625/. 
Good    Samaritan,    parallel   to    parable    of, 
232. 

—  Shepherd,  representations  of,  xix,  398, 

403,  436,  438.  492.  509. 
Goodspeed,  E.  J.,  240,  255,  371,  589. 
Gospel  according  to  tht  Egyptians,  216. 

—  of  Nicodemus,  243/. 

—  of  Peter,  219*. 

—  of  the  Hebrews,  216,  244. 

—  of  Thomas,  216. 

—  to  the  Egyptians,  69. 
Gospels,  Syriac  codex  of,  51. 

Graffiti,  362,  377,  379,  388,  391,  512^.,  520. 
Grammar  of  New  Testament,  106*. 


Graves,  Christian,  351*.,  402*. 
Gravestones,  Phrygian  Christian,  412*. 
Greek  civilization  and  archeology,  xiii. 

—  language  in  Egypt,  xviii. 

—  Manuscripts  of  New  Testament,  132*., 

209. 
Gregg,  J.  A.  F..  276. 
Gregory,  C.  R.,  105,  139,  140,  142*.,  150, 

166/.,  186,  205. 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  sermon  by,  281. 

—  Thaumaturgus,  sermon  of,  278f. 
Grieg,  F.  C.  S.,  356. 

Grenfell,  B.  P.,  162. 

—  B.  P.,  and  Hunt,  A.  S.,  6,  18*.,  39,  54. 

140,   154,   211,  215,  228/.,  231*.,  251, 

300.  320,  336. 
Griffith,  F.  L.,  652. 
Grottos  of  St.  John,  558. 
Guerin  (H.  V.),  355. 
Guilds,  48,  83/.,  426/..  564,  662,  674. 
Guillaume,  E.,  430. 
Gurob,  papyri  at,  16*. 
Guthe,  H..  357. 
Gwynn.  J.,  176. 

Hall.  H.  R..  294,  345,  535. 

Hamilton.  W.  J..  522. 

Harmony   of  the  Gospels,   185,  200*. 

Harnack,    A.,    103,   213/.,   230,   244/.,   259, 

261,  265.  309,  335/.,  657. 
Harris,   J.    R.,    179,    184,    200,    213,    219, 

245/.,  251,  308,  312*.,  631,  673. 
Hasluck,  F.  W.,  430/.,  572. 
Hauran.  architecture  in,  454*. 
Hawara,  papyri  finds  at,  16. 
Heathenism,  immorality  of,  264. 
Heberdey.  R.,  471/. 
Hebraisms,  36. 
Hebrews,  not  used  by  Irenaeus,  257. 

—  style  of,  113. 
Helene,  Epitaph  of,  348. 
Herculaneum,  manuscripts  found  at,  7. 
Hermas,  a  slave,  251/. 

—  Shepherd  of,  41,   134,  251*. 
Hermetic  books.  652. 
Herodas,  poems  of,  12/. 
Herodian  temple  at  Samaria,  362. 
Hezekiah,  Testament  of,  41. 
Hibeh  papvri,  43. 

Hicks,  E.  L,  463,  478,  481/. 

Hieracles,  work  by,  59. 

High  prices  in  early  centuries,  592*. 

Higher  criticism  and  archeology,  xv,  xxiv, 

10. 
Hill,  J.  H.,  204. 
Hippolytus,  canons  of,  339. 
Historical  research  and  archeology,  xxii. 
Hobson,  A.  A.,  205. 
Hodges,  G.,  553. 

Hogarth,  D.  G.,  422,  424,  430,  468/.,  546*. 
Holtzmann,  O.,  502. 
Holy  land  in  first  century,  577*. 
Homer,  text  of,  198. 

—  views  of,  and  archeology,  xiii. 
Horner,  G.,  165,  340. 
Hoskier,  H.  C,  138,  173. 
Hospitality,   early  Christian,   328. 
Humility,   sermon  on,  282/. 
Humor,  ancient,  647. 

Hunt,  A.  S.,  158,  231,  234, 


INDEX 


693 


Husband,  R.  W.,  633/. 
Hymns,   ancient   Christian,  300/?.,  456. 
Hypereides,  orations  of,  7,  14,  65. 
Hyvernat  (H.),  186,  290,  329,  339/. 

Iconium,  S271f. 

Idol  worship,  in  Didache,  265. 

Ignatius,  259. 

—  letters  of,  259/?. 
Iliad,  commentary  on,  58. 

—  part  of,  found  at  Elephantine,  7. 

of,  found  at  El  Hibeh,  43. 

Illiteracy  in  early  centuries,  45,  82. 
Il-Magharah,  tombs,  at,  444. 
Imber.  N.  H..  625. 
Immoralities   at   Pompeii,   376/F. 
Immorality  in  mystery  cults,  124/. 
Imprecations,    Christian,    424.      See    also 

Magic. 

Imouthes-Asclepius,  63. 

"In  the  name,"  meaning  of,  35. 

Incubation,  431,  486. 

Industries   in   early   centuries,   77,   89^". 

Infanticide,  683. 

Inns  in  Syria,  450/. 

Inscription,   earliest   Christian,   394. 

Inscriptions,  34,  342,  347,  351/^.,  368/?., 
387,  390/?.,  AUff.,  419/?.,  437/?.,  445, 
450,  453,  455fif.,  463,  472^.,  477/?., 
499^.,  504,  507,  515/.,  517/?.,  530/., 
536/?.,  545,  S52ff.,  565ff.,  568,  647, 
6SS. 

Inspiration,  Tyconius  on,  277. 

Intellectual   life   in   early  centuries,   625ff. 

Interest  rates  in  early  centuries,  45. 

Inventions  in  early  centuries,  636/?. 

Irenaeus,   256.  „ 

—  against  Heresies  336. 

—  apostolic  preaching  of,  255/. 
Iris,  statue  of,  581. 

"Isis,"  invocation  to,  62. 

—  Worship  of,  62/.,  507. 
Israel  and  Egypt,  xiv. 

Jacquier,  119. 

James,  Epistle  of,  and  Ilermas,  253. 

James,  M.  R.,  225. 

Jar  handles,  stamped,  361/. 

Jericho,  excavations  at,  361. 

Jerome's  text,  193/?. 

Jerusalem,    explorations   in,    354,   356/?. 

Jesus  and  Palestine,  577/?. 

—  deity  of,  214,  224,  285,  401. 

—  in  the  Talmud,  631. 

—  Trial  of,  631/?. 
Jewish  amulets,  300. 

—  catacombs,  384, 

—  colonies,  79/. 

—  influence,  657/. 

—  inscriptions,  479,  500/.,  515/..  555,  655/. 

—  literature,  pre-Christian,  603 ff. 

—  manuscripts,   659/?. 
Jews  in  Alexandria,  656/. 

—  in  Antioch,,  Asia  Minor,  531/. 

—  in  Antioch  in   Syria,   549/. 

—  in  Athens,  492/. 

—  in  Carthage,  575/. 

—  in  Corinth,  500f. 

—  in  Laodicea,  570. 

—  in  Lystra,  525/. 


Jews  in  JMiletus,  555. 

—  in  Phrygia,  428. 

—  in  Rome,  515/?. 

—  in  Smyrna,  562. 

—  in  Socnopaci  Nesus,  79/?. 

—  in  Tarsus,  543. 

Johannine   theology  in   Odes  of   Solomon, 

309,  311. 
John,  Apostle,  Acts  of,  233/. 
picture  of,  163. 

—  style  of  Gospel  of,  115. 

—  St.,   Grottos  of,   558. 

—  Rylands  library  papyri,    15,   49,  274. 

—  the  deacon,  epitaph  of,  348. 
Josephus,  622. 

Jubilees,  Book  of,  610. 
Judith,  604. 
Jiilicher,  G.  A.,  118. 
Judas,  Thomas,   181. 
Juster,  J.,  516,  657. 
Justin  Martyr,  201,  207,  213. 

Kasr  Ibu  Wardan  Church,  449. 

Katura,  rock  tombs  at,  453. 

Kennedy  (H.  A.  L.),  119. 

Kenyon,   F.   G.,  8/?.,   12,  98,   138/.,   143/., 

145,  148,  165,  167,  174,  218,  336. 
Kerratin,  cathedral  at,  451. 
Khan  Minyeh  not  Capernaum,  366. 
Koine,   Greek,  xvii^.,  30/?.,   108ff.,  U9 ff., 

582/?. 
Krauss,  660. 
Krebs,  F.,  272. 
Kurios  implies  deity,  xix. 

Lachish   (Tel  el  Hesy),  358/. 

Laible,  631. 

Lake,  K.,  251. 

Lambros,  Professor,  41,  251. 

Lanciani,    R.,    390,    503/.,    510,    513,    515, 

519. 
Lanza,  C,  432. 
Laodicea,  570/. 
Last  judgment,  sermon  on,  282. 

—  supper,  picture  of,  396. 
Latin  New  Testaments,  192/?. 

—  use  of,  641. 
Lavigerie,  Cardinal,  576. 
Le  Bas,  P.,  522. 
Lectionaries,  165. 
Lefebvre,  G.,  293.  329.  342. 

Legal  documents,  16,  21/.,  27?..  40,  43,  47, 
55/?.,  68,  80/?.,  85f.,  377,  566/.,  643. 

Legge,  F.,  623,  653,  655. 

Leon,  copvist  of  Didache.  261. 

Lethaby,   W.    R.,   472. 

Letters,  early  Christian,  320/?.  See  also 
Epistolary  literature. 

—  of  Ignatius,  259/?. 
Lewis,  A.  S.,  xv,  175/?.,  184/. 
Lexicons,  New  Testament,  107. 
Libelli,  27 Iff. 

Liberius,  homily  of,  343. 

—  sermon  of,  278. 

Life,  conditions  of,  shown  by  papyri,  xviii. 

—  wav  of,  in  Didache,  262. 
Lightfoot,  J.  B..  106. 

Literary  habits  of  first  century,  582ff. 
Literature,  rewards  of,  68. 
Littmann,  E..  459. 


694    THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 


Liturgical  fragments,  334/?. 
Livius.  T.,  520. 
Livy,  epitome  of,   147. 
"Logia,"  meaning  of.  35. 

—  date  of  manuscripts  of,  216,  218. 

—  of  Jesus,  23,  211/?. 

"Lord"  an  ascription  of  deity,  127/. 

"Lord's  Day,"  36,  128,  270. 

Lot  as  patron  saint,  368. 

Louvre,  papyri  in,  7,  13/. 

Luke,  accuracy  of,  526,   529,   546. 

—  spelling  of  name,  200. 

—  style  of,  113.  116. 
Lynch,  Lieut.,  355. 
Lystra,  discoveries  at,  525/?. 

Macalistcr,  R.  A.  S.,  359.  363. 

Madeba,   mosaic  at,  367. 

Magic,    11,    52,    294/?.,    298/.,   360/.,   371, 

601,  649^.,  655.  675/. 
Magical  dolls,  360. 

—  texts,   11,  52,  294^.,  650. 
Magie,  D.,  459. 

Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  16. 

Maiden's  Lament,  50. 

Mamertine  prison,  520. 

Man.  A..  373. 

Manaen,  38. 

Manceri.  E.,  558. 

Manumission,   55,    128,   396. 

Manuscripts,  dating  of,  98/. 

Mara's  testimony  to  Christ,  241. 

Marcion,  201. 

Marcionitic  synagog,  367. 

Marcus  Aurelius  as  persecutor,  275. 

Mareshah,  359. 

Margoliouth,  G.,  185,  604. 

Marionos,  epitaph  of,  347. 

Mar-Iochanis,  sermon  by,  279. 

Mark,  ending  of  Gospel  of,   104,  583. 

—  the  evangelist,  picture  of,  163. 
Mark's  Gospel  originally  Latin?,  199. 

—  style  of,  113. 
Martin.  V..  320,  643. 
Martyrs,  lives  of,  337ff. 

—  prayers  to,  395. 

—  tributes  to,  347. 

Maruccbi,    O.,    383/.,    Z?,9ff.,   508/.,   519/., 

667. 
Mary,  Virgin,  Damianus  on,  281. 
Maudslay,   357. 
Mearns,  J.,  308. 
Medical  documents,  49/.,  58. 

—  science,  637. 

— ■  terms  in  Acts,  581. 

Melita,  557. 

"Memoirs  of  the  Apostles,"  208. 

Memphitic  texts,  210. 

Men,    god    in    Pisidian    Antioch,    533^. 

Mena,  epitaph  of.  348. 

Menander,  writings  by,  21,  54,  59. 

Mercer,  S.  A.,  343. 

Messiah,  in  Odes  of  Solomon,  319. 

Meyer,  P.  M.,  273,  276,  325/. 

Milan.  572. 

Mileham.  G.  L..  97. 

Miletus,  554/?. 

Milligan,  G.,  98,  103,  143,  165,  587/. 

Milne.  J.  G.,  651. 

Mingana,  A.,  176. 


Mishna,  624, 

Mithraism,  505/.,  600,  653^.,  667/. 

Moeris,  Lake,  65;?.,  75. 

Moffat,  J.,  173,  417. 

Montefiore,  598. 

Montgomery,  J.  A.,  371. 

Moore,  M.,  576. 

Morals  in  first  century,  597^. 

Morey,  C.  K..  508. 

Morgan  collection,  340. 

Morosow,  N.,  on  the  Apocalypse,  104. 

Mortuary  inscriptions,  347/?.,  351/?.,  369^., 
387^^.,  390/?.,  411/?.,  419ff.,  425/., 
438,  455/?.,  480,  500/?.,  517^.,  647, 
655/.,  682. 

Mosaics,  367/.,  437,  452,  514,  576. 

Moses,  assumption  of,  617. 

—  literary  activity  of,  xxi. 

Moulton,  J.   IL,   101,   106/.,  110,  220,  491, 

673,  678. 
Moulton,  J.  H.,  and  Milligan,  G.,  129,  131. 
Moulton,  W.  J.,  360. 
Mummification,  Christian,  404/?. 
Mummy  cases,  made  of  papyri,  16/. 

—  magically  invoked,  298/. 
Music,  early,   638. 

—  in  Ephesian  temple,  467. 
"Mysteries,"  123/?.,  535,  537^.,  563. 

Names,  Aramaic  forms  of,  ISO/. 

—  magical  use  of,  297,  361. 

—  of  churches  in  Egvpt,  62,  337. 
Naville,  E.,  xi/?.,  14,  407. 

"Neutral"  New  Testament  text,  112,  136, 

172. 
Newcombe,  S.  F.,  356. 
New    Testament,    accuracy    of,    489,    526, 

529,  546. 

and  archeology,  xiv,  xvii^.,  30/?. 

and  the  Koine,  xvii/?.,  xxiii.,  30/?. 

authors   used   vernacular,    112. 

dated  in  first  century,   103. 

grammar,  106/?. 

peculiarities  of,  109. 

Greek  manuscripts,    132/?.,   174. 

in  Didache,  265. 

language,  xvi#'.,  30;?. 

lexicons,  107. 

manuscripts,  numbers  of,  105. 

style,  112^.,  588. 

text,  certainty  of,  209. 

vocabulary,    113,    119/?. 

Newton,  C,  430. 

Newton,  C.  T.,  554. 

Nicene  creed,  51,  336. 

Nicodemus,  Gospel  of,  243/. 

Nicola,  council  of,  339. 

Nimbus,  398/. 

Number   of  New   Testament   manuscripts, 

174,  193,  209/. 
Numbers,  symbolism  of,  377/. 

Odes  of  Solomon,  219,  308^". 

Odyssey,  50. 

CEcumenius,  commentary   on   Apocalypse, 

336. 
Offord,  J.,  519. 
Old  Latin  text,   194/. 

—  Testament  and   archeology,   xiii. 
in  Didache,  265. 


INDEX 


695 


Olmstead,  A.  J.,  429. 

Onias,  temple  of,  657. 

Orphanages,  Christian,  427. 

Orpheus  as  a  symbol,  xix. 

Osiris,  409/. 

Ostraka,   80/.,   164/f.,   330/f.,   345,   589. 

Oxyrhynchus    (Behnesa)    papyri,    xiv,    6, 

19,  26/.,  39,  54/f.,  211/^,  215*'.,  228^., 

233^. 

—  church  services  in,  337. 

—  described,  66,   68,   8Sff. 

—  life  in,  89/?.,  663. 
Origan,  244. 

—  commentary  on   Revelation  by,  257 ff. 

—  Scholia  on  Apocalypse,  336. 

—  voluminous  works  of,  258. 

Pachomius,  97. 

Paintings,  wall,  375/.,  379,  395^. 

Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  355^. 

—  exploration   of,  xiv,   355^.,   577^. 

—  light  from,  351^.,  577^. 

—  maps  of,  356. 

—  Syriac  lectionary,  218. 
Papnoutios,  Acts  of  martyrdom  of,  338. 
Papyri  at  Oxyrhynchus,  variety  of,  xiv. 

—  collections  of,   64/. 
— ■  durability  of,  24. 

—  illustrate  common  life,  xviii. 

—  in  Louvre,  7,  13/. 

—  published  by  British  Museum,  10,   12/?. 
— -support   Westcott-Hort  text,  173. 

—  historical  value  of,  670/F. 
Papyrus  books,   104. 

—  early  use  of,  3. 

—  finds  at  Arsinoe,  8 

at  Gurob,  16ff, 

at  Hawara,  16. 

at  Hibeh,  42. 

at    Oxyrhynchus,    xiv,    6,    19,    26/., 

39. 
— ■  —  at  Tebtunis,  39/. 

—  languages  used  on,  3. 

—  manufacture   of,   4. 

—  sheets,  sizes  of,   5,   99. 
Parchment  =  sheepskin,  4,   104. 
Parthenon,  483,  485. 
Parusia,  the,  271. 

Pastoral     epistles     substantially     genuine, 

102. 
Paul,  Acts  of,  236/. 

—  at  Athens,  483^. 

—  at  Corinth,  494^. 

—  at   Derbe,    527. 

—  at  Ephesus,  473/. 

—  at  Iconium,    528/. 

—  at  Lystra,  525/. 

—  at  Pisidian  Antioch,  533/. 

—  at  Rome,   SVff. 

—  education  of.  xx5. 

—  pictures  of,  396,  520. 

—  style  of,  114/?. 

—  used  Koine,  xviii. 

—  use  of  symbols  by,  124. 
Pauline  letters,  31/?.,   100/.,   118. 
Peake,  A.  S..  204. 
Pergamum,   563/. 

Perrot,  G..  413,  430. 

Persae,  the,  of  Timotheus,   14. 


Persecutions    of    Christians,     66/.,     272, 

275/.  434^..  513. 
Peshito,  176,  202. 
Peter,  Acts  of,  233. 

—  Apocalypse  of,  219/.,  225//. 

—  Gospel  of,  219. 

—  pictures  of,  396,   520. 
Peters,  J.  P.,  360. 
Petrie,  G.,  576. 

Petrie,  W.  M.  F.,  16/.,  218,  358,  652. 

Petrine  Epistles,  103,   115. 

Phaedo  of  Plato,   16. 

Philadelphia,  569/. 

Philanthropy,  early,  596/.,  678/. 

Philemon,  epistle  to,   117. 

Philippi,  545*'. 

Philo,  622ff. 

Philoxenian  Syriac  text,  176. 

Phylacteries,  363,  655. 

Phrygia,  414ff. 

Phrygian    gravestones,   Christian,   412//. 

Physicians,  documents  by,  21/. 

Physiological  treatise,  49. 

Phythian-Adams,  W.  J.,  655. 

Pick,   B.,  233,   241. 

Pindar,  poems  by,  20,  59/. 

Pirke  Aboth,  634/F. 

Pisa,  A.,  376,  381. 

Pistis  Sophia,  652. 

Plato,  works  of,  16,  59. 

Police,  85/. 

Polycorpus,   176. 

Pompeii,  discoveries  at,  373ff. 

—  theater  at,  514. 
Pontremoli,   E.,   564. 

Popular  character  of  N.  T.  language,  30/?. 

—  language,  beauty  of,  xx. 
Population  in  the  Fayum,  67. 

—  in   Pisidian  Antioch,  531/?". 
Portraits   of   Christ,   ideal,   42,   389,   395/. 
Postscripts  to  letters,  588. 

Potsherds,  see  Ostraka. 

Prayer,  post-communion,  in   Didache,  268. 

Prayers,  ancient,  290. 

—  to  martyrs,  395. 
Pre-Constantinian  texts,    170,   172/. 
Prentice,  W.  K.,  442,  455. 
Prepositions,  use  of  Greek,  110. 
Priesthood  in  the  Fayum,  76/?. 
Priests  of  Artemis,  464/?. 
Princeton    Syrian    Expeditions,   442/f. 
Priscilla,  495. 

Private  versus  official  Bibles,  167,   172. 
Proclus,  sermon  by,  285. 
Prodigal  son,  parable  of,  327,  612/. 
Prophets,  in  Didache,  268ff. 
Prostitution  at  temples,  465,  496. 
Provenance  of  Syriac  manuscripts,   175. 
Psalms  of  Solomon,  611/. 
Psalters,   Coptic,  307/. 
Psenosiris,  Epistle  of,  322. 
Ptolemaic  documents   found,   7. 
Purple  dyes,  565. 
Puteoli,  558fl^. 

Quirinius,  46,  538. 

Quotations    from    Scripture,    334/?.,    342, 
345^. 

Radet,  G.,  413. 


696     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 


Radin,  M.,  516,  660. 

Rainer  collection  of  papyri,  189,  260,  335. 

Ramsay,    Sir    William,    xv,    xvi,    38,    46, 

412/?.,     481/.,     S2\ff.,     S2M.,     532ff.. 

537ff.,  541,  546,  562,  564/.,  569,  572, 

655,  679. 
Ravenna,  572/. 

Real  estate  values,  72,  81/.,  95. 
Reinach,  J.,  467. 
Reinhardt,  Dr.,  236. 
Reisner,  G.  A.,  361. 
Reitzenstein,  125. 

Religion  in  first  century,  597ff.,  677ff. 
Renan,  E.,  595. 

Resurrection,  Book  of  the,   238. 
Revelation,  Book  of,  104,   115. 

—  not  used  by  Irenaeus,  257. 

—  Origen's  commentary  on,  2S7fF. 

—  of   Peter.      See   Apocalypse. 
Revenge  dolls,  360. 

Revival  sermon,  early,  282. 

"Reward" — receipt  in  full,  122. 

Rhodes,  556. 

Ricci,  M.  de,  347. 

Richardson,  R.  B.,  497^. 

Richter,  O.,  507. 

Ring  of  Pope  Xystus,  254ff. 

Robertson,    A.    T.,    107,    109/.,    114,    119, 

121. 
Robinson,  E.,  discoveries   of,   354/F. 
Robinson,  J.  A.,  223,  245/.,  251,  261,  335. 
Robinson,  W.  H.,  368. 
Rock,  Christ  as,  279. 
Rodenwalt,  G.,  376. 
Rodkinson,  M.  L.,  626/. 
Roesch,  152. 
Rolls,  manuscript,  100. 
Roman   religion,   597ff. 
Rome,  discoveries  at,  502^. 
Ropes,  J.  H.,  212. 
Ross,  C.  F.,  371. 
Rulers,  early  prayer  for,  291. 
Ruweha,  structures  in,  445,  452. 

Sabazius,  417/. 
Sabbath,  610f.,  627/?. 
"Sabbatize  the  Sabbath,"  213. 
Sacraments,  early  doctrine  of,  401. 
Sahidic  Coptic  dialect,   186. 

—  manuscripts,   187,  189/?.,  210. 

—  version  of  New  Testament,  188. 
Saints,  lives  of,  337/?. 

Salona,  Dalmatia,  432/?. 
Samaria,  excavations  at,  361/. 
Samaritan  Pentateuch,  51. 
Sanctus,  ancient,  344. 
Sanday,  W.,  204. 
Sanders,  H.  A.,  160/?. 
Sanitation  in   Syria,  453/. 
Sappho,  poems  by,  20,  21,  59. 
Sarcophagi,    365/.,    389/.,    436,    438,    451, 
508/. 

—  Jewish,  365. 

Satyrus'  life  of  Euripides,  58. 

Savary,  A.,   173. 

SchaflF,  P.,  262,  264/.,  290. 

Schechter,  S.,  604,  614,  659ff. 

Schleifer,    186. 

Schmidt,  C,  237,  293. 

Schmidt,  N.,  370. 


School  exercises,  51,  345,  640/?. 
"Schoolmaster,"  123. 
Schools,  638/?.,  660,  672^. 
Schroeder,  P.,  372. 
Schiirer,  E.,  657. 
Schweitzer,  A.,  491,  655. 
Scott-Moncrieff,   P.   D.,   404,  407^. 
Scripture  and  archeology,  xiii,  xv. 

—  in  Egyptian  sermons,  284. 
"Seal,"  36/. 

Second  Baruk,  618. 

—  century  conditions,   12/. 
Secrets   of   Enoch,   620/. 
Sellin,   E.,  361. 

Semitisms  in  New  Testament,  llO/f.,  119. 

Septuagint,  32^.,  106,   119. 

Serapeum   at   Memphis,   documents  found 

at,  7,  10. 
Serapion  at  Antioch,  220. 

—  at  Ephesus,  473. 
Sergius  Paulla,  538ff. 

—  Paullus,   538^.,  552/. 
Sermons,  early  Christian,   277/?. 

—  Egyptian,   use  of  Scripture  in,  284. 
Severus,  Conflict  of,  240. 

—  hymn  of,   308. 

Shepherd  of  Hermas,  41,  134,  251^^. 

Ships  in   first  century,    579/. 

Shorthand,  57,  59,  584,  672. 

Sidonian  tombs,  360. 

Siegfried,  623. 

Simeon  Stylites,  church  of,  at  Kal'at  Si- 
man,  444. 

Simon  Magus,  233. 

Sinaitic  codex,  133;?". 

— Syriac  codex,  xv,  176 ff. 

Sins,   in  Didache,  263. 

Skins,  tanned,  early  use  of,  3. 

Slang  in   New  Testament,   120. 

Slavery,  55,  395,  591,  595,  666,  681. 

Sloden,  D.,  576. 

Smith,  J.,  557. 

Smyth,  H.  W.,  644. 

Smyrna,  561/. 

Social  and  family  life  illustrated,  10/?., 
23,  28/.,  44/?..  55,  70^.,  86/.,  91/., 
123,  321/.,  330/.,  395,  399,  445^.,  459, 
635^.,  663,  673/. 

Socnopsi  Nesus,  65,  68,  75ff.,  168. 

documents  found  at,  8. 

religious  rites  at,   75. 

Soldiers,  Christian,  graves  of,  388. 

—  Christians  as,  424,  429,  437/. 
Solomon,  Book  of  key  of,  655. 

—  Odes  and  Psalms  of,  219,  308ff. 

—  Psalms  of,  611/. 
"Son  of  Man,"  606. 
Sophocles,  fragments  from,  43. 
— -manuscripts  of,  105. 

Sou!,  Syriac  hymn  of  the,  302. 

Souter,  A.,  131,  139,  229. 

South  Galatian  theory,  416ff. 

Spafford,  J.  E.,  365. 

Spelling  in  early  MSS.,  585/. 

Spider  as  emblem,  371. 

Spinazzola,   Prof.,  514. 

"Spiritual,"  meaning  of,  37. 

Spiritualizing    of    New    Testament    terms, 

121. 
Spyridion,  bishop  of  Cyprus,  553. 


INDEX 


697 


Statues  from  Ephesua,  471. 

Statutes  of  the  Apostles.  340. 

Stearns,  W.  N.,  141,  142,  152. 

Sterrett,  J.  R.,  429,  525/. 

Stigmata,  38. 

Stone  of  Bethphage,  355. 

Storied  houses,  453. 

Strachan,  R.   H.,  310. 

Strack,  H.  L.,  626.  634. 

Strong,  H.  A..  481. 

Stuart,  D.  R.,  459. 

Style  in  New  Testament,   112 ff. 

Stylistic  differences  in  letters,   100. 

Superstition   in    early   centuries,    52/.,    93, 

290/.,  294ff.     See  especially  Magic. 
Swete,  H.  B.,  583. 
Sylvia,   St.,   178/. 

Symbols,  Christian,  397/.,  409,  421. 
Synagog  at  Tell-Hum,  366. 
Syracuse,  557/. 

Syria,   Christian  monuments  in,  440fF. 
Syriac  apocrypha,  241. 

—  codex  of  Gospels,  51. 

—  Hymn  of  the  Soul,  302. 

—  hymns,  308/r. 

—  language,  175. 

—  New  Testaments,  175ff. 

—  translation  of  New  Testament,  date  of, 

179/.,  204/. 
Syrian  Church,  prosperity  of,  459. 

Talmud,  624  fl'. 

Tarsus,  541^. 

Tatian  and  his  harmony,  200ff. 

Taxation,  76/F.,  84/.,  664/. 

Taylor,  C,  142,  254. 

Teaching   of   Twelve   Apostles.      See   Di. 

dache. 
Tebtunis  papyri,  39,  65. 
Tekmorian  Guest  Friends,  416. 
Tel-el-Amarna   tablets,   xiv. 
Tel  el  Hesy  (Lachish),  358ff. 
Tel  Sandahannah,  359/?. 
Tell-Hum,  excavations  at,  366. 
Temple  industries,  77. 

—  offerings,   77,  92/. 

—  treasure  at  Ephesus,  468/?. 
Terminology,  Christian,   120/. 
Terry,  M.  S.,  617. 
Testament  of  Abraham,  235. 

—  of  Hezekiah,  41. 
Testamentary  literature,  58,  94. 
Testaments    of   Twelve    Patriarchs,    607/?. 
Texts,  types  of  New  Testament,  171. 
Textual     criticism     and     the     fragments, 

166  if. 

—  form  of  MS.  and  papyri,  98/?. 
Thaneas,   10/. 

Thaus,  10/. 
Thayer,  J.  H.,  119. 
Theadelphia,  libelli  from,  273/. 
Theastetus,  commentary  on,  65. 
Theaters,    ancient,    375,    472/.,    475,    484, 

487,   514,   555,   558/. 
Thekla,  237,  530. 
Theocritus,  Idyls  of,  59. 
Theodore  of  Egypt,  333/. 
Theon,  letter  of,  23. 
Thessalonica,  547ff. 
Thiersch,  H.,  360. 


Thmuis,  papyri  in,  xviii,   14/. 

Thucydides,  works  by,  60. 

Thumb,  106.  107. 

Thyatira,   564/. 

Tiberias  of  Galilee,  372. 

Timotheus,  poems  of,  14,  65. 

Timothy,  101. 

Tischendorf,  C,  xv,  41,  132ff.,  251. 

Titus,  arch  of,  515/. 

Tobit,  604. 

Tobler,  T.,  355. 

Todd,  M.  N.,  369. 

Tombs,  360,   365,  387/?.,  403,  408,  420ff., 

504/?.,  561,  574/?. 
Tombs,  painted,  360. 
Torr,  C,  556. 
Torrey,  C.  C,  116. 
Trade  unions.     See  Guilds. 
Trades  and  professions.  Christian,  661. 
Town  clerk  of  Ephesus,  466. 
Trajan  persecution,  275. 
Travel  in  first  century,  103,  579. 
Trinity,  the,  319,  344,  401,  459. 
Twelve    Patriarchs,   Testaments   of,  607 ff. 
Tyconius,  on  inspiration,  277. 
Types  of  New  Testament  texts,  171. 
Tyrannvis,  school  of,  473. 

Umm  il-Kutten.  455. 

—  is-Surab,  church  at,  454. 
Uncial  versus  cursive  texts,  172. 
University  of  Tarsus,  541. 

Valentine,  201. 

Valid     traditions     in     apocryphal     works, 

243/. 
Vaschalde,  A.  A.,  191/. 
Vatican  codex,   135/f. 
Vaults,    architectural,    in    Syria,   448ff. 
Vellum   (calfskin),  4. 
Vergilian  manuscripts,  105. 
Vestal  virgins,  house  of,   510/. 
Vestals  of  Artemis,  465. 
Vettii,  house  of,  376. 
Virgin  birth,  184,  195. 
Virgin  Mary,  reverence  for,  337,  481. 
hymns   to,   304/?. 

—  pictures  of,  398. 
Vocabulary,  Lucan,  113. 

—  of  Didache,  261. 

—  of  New  Testament,  113,  119ff. 
Vogiie.  C.  J.   M.  de.  441. 

Von  Soden  (H.  K.  H.),  171/?. 

Vulgate  manuscripts,  number  of,  193,  195. 

—  text,  193. 
"Wallet,"  126. 

Wardens  of  Ephesian  temple,  467/. 

Warren,  C,  357. 

Washington  codex,  143,  160/?. 

Ways,  the  two,  262. 

Wedding  invitations,  22. 

Wessely,    C,    140/.,    150/.,    153/.,    157/.. 

174,  187,  190,  231,  260,  272,  335,  638, 

642. 
"Western"  text,  171,  173,   198,  200. 
White  Monastery,  186. 
Widows,   340. 
Wiedemann,  A.,  14. 
Wiegand,  Dr.,  555. 
Wilcken,  U.,  166,  647. 


698     THE  NEW  ARCHEOLOGICAL  DISCOVERIES 


Wilson,  C.  W.,  357,  522. 
Wisdom,  Book  of,  604f. 
Women,  culture  of,  639. 
—  honored  in'  Phrygia,  428. 
Wood,  E.  D.,  485,  491,  495. 
Wood,  J.  T.,  461^.,  481. 
Woodward,  S.  W.,  367. 


"Writing,"   meaning  of,  34. 

Xystus,  ring  of,  254;?. 

Zadokite  work,  614/?. 

Zahn,  T.,  204,  228,  259,  684. 

Zeus,  Athenian  temple  of,  485. 


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